| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Way Back Jack" |
| Date: |
09 Mar 2006 10:36:09 PM |
| Object: |
Washinton Post: GOP Distances Themselves From Moron In Chief |
In an Election Year, GOP Wary of Following Bush
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 10, 2006; A06
When President Bush and senior adviser Karl Rove mapped out plans for a
political comeback in 2006, this was nowhere on the script. Suddenly, the
collapse of a port-management deal neither even knew about a month ago has
devastated the White House and raised questions about its ability to lead
even fellow Republicans.
The bipartisan uprising in Congress in the face of a veto threat represented
a singular defeat for Bush, who when it came to national security grew
accustomed during his first five years in office to leading as he chose and
having loyal lawmakers fall in line. Now, with his poll numbers in a
political ditch, the port debacle has contributed to a perception of weakness
that has liberated Republicans who once would never have dared cross Bush.
"He has no political capital," said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster.
"Slowly but surely it's been unraveling. There's been a direct correlation
between the trajectory of his approval numbers and the -- I don't want to
call it disloyalty -- the independence on the part of the Republicans in
Congress."
The port deal has troubled Republicans not just on the substance of the issue
but also on the president's handling of it. The White House failed to
anticipate the frenzy that would be touched off by the prospect of an Arab
company managing U.S. ports, and many Republicans believe that Bush
exacerbated the situation with a rash veto threat.
The missteps seem all the more striking for a White House once known for its
discipline and political acuity. With Bush's approval rating ranging from 34
percent in a CBS News poll to 41 percent in the latest Washington Post-ABC
News survey, some Republican candidates facing the voters in just eight
months worry privately that, unlike in 2002 and 2004, he will be more
albatross than advantage for GOP candidates in the fall campaign.
White House strategists reject such talk as exaggerated, pointing to other
examples of Republican solidarity and predicting that the uproar over the
ports will have faded long before anyone enters a voting booth in November.
Bush made a point of surrounding himself with congressional Republicans
yesterday in the East Room as he signed legislation reauthorizing the USA
Patriot Act. Among those on hand was Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who led the
port revolt.
"We are a party that is united and moving forward on a record of
accomplishment, a record of results," White House press secretary Scott
McClellan said. Dismissing questions about Bush's effectiveness, he added:
"There's a tendency in this town to try to selectively pick snapshots, when
the broader reality is that we have a record of results and that we're
getting things done for the American people."
And many Republicans are still rallying around the president. After signing
the Patriot Act, Bush flew to Atlanta last night to headline the Georgia
Republican Party's Presidents' Day dinner. A senior White House official,
speaking not for attribution in order to discuss political strategy,
expressed relief that on the biggest policy issues -- Iraq above all -- most
congressional Republicans still back Bush.
But many Republicans are less willing to give Bush the benefit of the doubt
as they once did. That became evident last year on domestic issues, when they
abandoned his Social Security plan, criticized his handling of Hurricane
Katrina and forced the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.
Just yesterday, the Senate Budget Committee passed a budget resolution that
dropped Bush's proposals for tax relief, Medicare cuts and expanded health
savings accounts. A frustrated Bush pushed back earlier in the week, accusing
Congress of shortchanging Katrina relief efforts.
Now the estrangement increasingly appears even on national security issues,
where Republicans long deferred to the president. Recent rebukes run from the
ports deal to a ban on torture to Patriot Act revisions forced on Bush in
exchange for congressional approval. Partly in the name of national security,
Republican leaders also seem poised to dismiss Bush's proposal for a guest-
worker program for illegal immigrants.
"He cannot afford another breach related to national security, I can tell you
that," said Patrick Griffin, who was the chief congressional liaison for the
Clinton White House. "That would be devastating."
Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who produced a survey this week
suggesting Bush's public standing has been hurt by the port issue, said it
may be too late to repair the schism between Bush and congressional
Republicans. "I don't know how you put the genie back in the bottle," he
said. "After five years of unwavering loyalty to the president, they've
demonstrated they'll break with the president to save their own skins."
The port deal has provided ammunition to Democrats who have begun making the
case more broadly that Bush is in over his head. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.)
yesterday called the port situation a "case study in the administration's
incompetence," and Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) said the administration
"was clearly asleep at the switch" and "bungled the oversight of this deal."
But it's not clear whether Democrats will be able to turn that issue to their
benefit in the fall. Republicans on Capitol Hill were every bit as vocal as
their opponents in standing against the port deal, making it harder to draw a
clear distinction come campaign time. By turning against Bush, some GOP
strategists believe Republican leaders may have saved themselves a worse
fate.
"I never thought we would see a day when anybody would get to the president's
right on national security," Fabrizio said. "They may have made chicken salad
out of chicken you-know-what. If the Democrats had been able to use this, it
would have been horrible, horrible."
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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| User: "Way Back Jack" |
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| Title: Führer Bush's Approval Rating Hits New Low 32%!!! |
10 Mar 2006 06:29:25 AM |
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Bush's Approval Rating Hits New Low
By RON FOURNIER
WASHINGTON - More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of
President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider
him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll
documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.
Nearly four out of five Americans, including 70 percent of Republicans,
believe civil war will break out in Iraq _ the bloody hot spot upon which
Bush has staked his presidency. Nearly 70 percent of people say the U.S. is
on the wrong track, a 6-point jump since February.
"I'm not happy with how things are going," said Margaret Campanelli, a
retiree in Norwich, Conn., who said she tends to vote GOP. "I'm particularly
not happy with Iraq, not happy with how things worked with Hurricane
Katrina."
Republican Party leaders said the survey explains why GOP lawmakers are
rushing to distance themselves from Bush on a range of issues _ port
security, immigration, spending, warrantless eavesdropping and trade, for
example.
The positioning is most intense among Republicans facing election in November
and those considering 2008 presidential campaigns.
"You're in the position of this cycle now that is difficult anyway. In second
term off-year elections, there gets to be a familiarity factor," said Sen.
Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a potential presidential candidate.
"People have seen and heard (Bush's) ideas long enough and that enters into
their thinking. People are kind of, `Well, I wonder what other people can
do,'" he said.
The poll suggests that most Americans wonder whether Bush is up to the job.
The survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday of 1,000 people, found that
just 37 percent approve of his overall performance. That is the lowest of his
presidency.
Bush's job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February
to 74 percent, a dangerous sign in a midterm election year when parties rely
on enthusiasm from their most loyal voters. The biggest losses were among
white males.
On issues, Bush's approval rating declined from 39 percent to 36 percent for
his handling of domestic affairs and from 47 percent to 43 percent on foreign
policy and terrorism. His approval ratings for dealing with the economy and
Iraq held steady, but still hovered around 40 percent.
Personally, far fewer Americans consider Bush likable, honest, strong and
dependable than they did just after his re-election campaign.
By comparison, Presidents Clinton and Reagan had public approval in the mid
60s at this stage of their second terms in office, while Eisenhower was close
to 60 percent, according to Gallup polls. Nixon, who was increasingly tangled
up in the Watergate scandal, was in the high 20s in early 1974.
The AP-Ipsos poll, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, gives
Republicans reason to worry that they may inherit Bush's political woes. Two-
thirds of the public disapproves of how the GOP-led Congress is handling its
job and a surprising 53 percent of Republicans give Congress poor marks.
"Obviously, it's the winter of our discontent," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
By a 47-36 margin, people favor Democrats over Republicans when they are
asked who should control Congress.
While the gap worries Republicans, Cole and others said it does not
automatically translate into GOP defeats in November, when voters will face a
choice between local candidates rather than considering Congress as a whole.
In addition, strategists in both parties agree that a divided and
undisciplined Democratic Party has failed to seize full advantage of
Republican troubles.
"While I don't dispute the fact that we have challenges in the current
environment politically, I also believe 2006 as a choice election offers
Republicans an opportunity if we make sure the election is framed in a way
that will keep our majorities in the House and the Senate," said Ken Mehlman,
chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Stung by criticism, senior officials at the White House and the RNC are
reminding GOP members of Congress that Bush's approval ratings may be low,
but theirs is lower and have declined at the same pace as Bush's. The message
to GOP lawmakers is that criticizing the president weakens him _ and them _
politically.
"When issue like the internal Republican debate over the ports dominates the
news it puts us another day away from all of us figuring out what policies we
need to win," said Terry Nelson, a Republican consultant and political
director for Bush's re-election campaign in 2004.
Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company on Thursday
abandoned its quest to take over operations at several U.S. ports. Bush had
pledged to veto any attempt to block the transaction, pitting him against
Republicans in Congress and most voters.
All this has Republican voters like Walter Wright of Fairfax Station, Va.,
worried for their party.
"We've gotten so carried away I wouldn't be surprised to see the Democrats
take it because of discontent," he said. "People vote for change and hope for
the best."
Associated Press writer Will Lester and AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor
Tompson contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Ipsos: http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
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