When the Republicans controlled Congress, George W. Bush found it necessary to veto only one bill, an unusually compassionate piece of legislation that would have allowed the use of stem cells to seek cures for diseases.

But with the enemy in control of both Houses, the veto process is picking up. There was the frequently announced intention to veto the bill setting timelines to withdraw our troops from Iraq, followed by the altogether surprising announcement television that he would actually do it.

Now, the president hopes to add to that two veto legacy by vetoing a bill that would extend federal hate crime protection to people victimized because of their sexual orientation. It would make the assault or murder of a homosexual a hate crime just as it’s already considered a hate crime to assault or murder a person because of his race, religion, color or national origin.

The addition of sexual orientation is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable, according to a White House statement put out right before the House passed the unnecessary and constitutionally questionable bill the other day.

Unnecessary? I guess the White House is saying that if some thugs are charged with murdering a gay and dragging his body with a pickup truck through the streets of a dusty town, it is unnecessary to also charge them with a hate crime. That would be piling on …

And unconstitutional? The Rev. James Dobson, the learned legal scholar who heads the right wing Focus on the Family, has a First Amendment issue. The bill’s purpose, said the reverend doctor, was “to muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality.”

Hate crimes do not muzzle people who express their moral and biblical concerns about a person’s religion, race, color or national origin but Dobson didn’t explain why those morally and biblically outraged at gays would be afforded this exception.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the leading Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, is worried too. He thinks protecting not only gays but also minorities or women or disabled people from hate crimes is unfair to the rest of us. “Under this bill, justice will no longer be equal, but depend on the race, sex, sexual orientation, disability or status of the women.”

To prove the Texas statesman’s point, the White House lamented that the bill would leave the elderly — and get this — the military and police officers without similar protection. To kill the bill, House Republicans tried to add the elderly, cops and soldiers to those qualifying for hate crime protection but they were defeated.

Every day, in every way, George W. Bush is enhancing his ranking as the worst president we ever had.