| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
04 Mar 2004 03:50:22 PM |
| Object: |
Novak sees relations between Bush and GOP congress as one big mess. |
The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal
Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress
-- are privately talking about political merits in the election of
Sen. Kerry.
From The Chicago Sun-Times, 3/4/04:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak04.html
Bush, GOP Congress not on the same page
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
At 1 p.m. on Feb. 25, some 15 prominent Republicans invited to be
surrogates in the coming presidential campaign gathered at Bush-Cheney
headquarters in suburban Northern Virginia for a private briefing.
Less than two hours earlier that day, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan detonated a political bombshell.
To judge from the bland and uninformative briefing, nobody on the
president's campaign team heard the explosion.
Former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, a Washington lawyer-lobbyist who
last year resigned as figurehead chairman of the Republican National
Committee to become figurehead chairman of Bush-Cheney '04, led the
precisely orchestrated, one-hour briefing.
He did not mention that Greenspan had just testified to Congress
advocating reduced Social Security benefits.
Racicot might be excused for being silent and unaware of the central
banker's latest political mischief, since it also escaped the
attention that morning of key Bush policymakers.
The invited advocates were handed a thick batch of talking points to
ingest by the campaign's appropriately named chief of surrogates,
Julie Cram.
Nowhere in the handout did the forbidden words ''Social Security''
appear.
''The president's opponents are against personal retirement accounts''
is the closest the briefing material came to the dreaded subject.
Many prospective surrogates left campaign headquarters profoundly
depressed by the mediocre briefing and the material given them.
This fits the deepening malaise among Republicans in the capital.
They are neither surprised nor terribly worried by polls that
temporarily show George W. Bush trailing John Kerry.
What worries the GOP faithful is the absence of firm leadership in
their party either at the White House or on Capitol Hill.
The lack of a ready response to Greenspan, while Democrats quickly
turned his comments into an indictment of President Bush's tax cuts,
was not an isolated failing.
Today, Republicans on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue seem to be
going in opposite directions.
*Disagreement between congressional Republicans and Bush over the size
of the highway bill reflects mutual recriminations over runaway
federal spending in general.
While the president's aides are angered by the lawmakers' addiction to
concrete, conservative lawmakers are furious that Bush's budget has
preserved and actually increased federal funding for the arts.
*Bush's call to make his tax cuts permanent and to repeal the estate
tax for all time leaves Republicans in Congress perplexed about how
they will be able to write a budget without a massive increase in the
huge deficit that never will command a majority vote.
*House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and his allies are bitter that they
received no backing from the president and administration in their
efforts to keep the independent 9/11 investigation from extending into
the campaign season.
*The president came out for a constitutional amendment to bar gay
marriage without consulting congressional Republican leaders, which
helps explain the unenthusiastic reception from his own party on
Capitol Hill.
*Congressional Republicans still have not recovered from the shock of
the President's Economic Report extolling the outsourcing of
industrial jobs -- good economics perhaps, bad politics definitely.
The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal
Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress
-- are privately talking about political merits in the election of
Sen. Kerry.
Their reasoning goes like this:
There is no way Democrats can win the House or Senate even if Bush
loses.
If Bush is re-elected, Democrats are likely to win both the House and
Senate in a 2006 mid-term rebound.
If Kerry wins, Republicans will be able to bounce back with
congressional gains in 2006.
To voice such heretical thoughts suggests that Republicans on Capitol
Hill are more interested in maintaining the fruits of majority status
first won in 1994 rather than in governing the country.
A few thoughtful GOP lawmakers ponder the record of the first time in
40 years that the party has controlled both the executive and
legislative branches, and conclude that record is deeply
disappointing.
But incipient heresy also reflects shortcomings of the Bush political
operation.
Its emphasis has been on fund-raising and organization, with
deficiencies in communicating and leadership.
The president is in political trouble, and his disaffected supporters
who should be backing him aggressively provide the evidence.
________________________________________________________
Sad to see the sudden disintegration of the right wing in America.
Where will the comedy and entertainment come from?
Harry
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|
| User: "Republican Double Standard" |
|
| Title: Re: Novak sees relations between Bush and GOP congress as one big mess. |
04 Mar 2004 03:58:09 PM |
|
|
Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in
news:o49f409mqbqrvh5qq6gbtl3qatoq4fej9j@4ax.com:
The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal
Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress
-- are privately talking about political merits in the election of
Sen. Kerry.
Ouch! There's Bush, the great uniter, for you.
--
"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed...
managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...Of the
many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as
the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and
owe equal allegiance to their country." (Colin Powell’s autobiography,
My American Journey, p. 148)
.
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| User: "SkyModem" |
|
| Title: Re: Novak sees relations between Bush and GOP congress as one big mess. |
04 Mar 2004 05:37:55 PM |
|
|
"Republican Double Standard" <bio_dudeNOSPAM@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94A2AC959A9AEbiodudeNOSPAMhotmail@130.133.1.4...
| Harry Hope <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in
| news:o49f409mqbqrvh5qq6gbtl3qatoq4fej9j@4ax.com:
|
| >
| > The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal
| > Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress
| > -- are privately talking about political merits in the election of
| > Sen. Kerry.
| >
| Ouch! There's Bush, the great uniter, for you.
Ugghhh...... he really knows how stir up support, doesn't he? ; )
|
|
| --
| "I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed...
| managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...Of the
| many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as
| the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and
| owe equal allegiance to their country." (Colin Powell's autobiography,
| My American Journey, p. 148)
.
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