It's full speed ahead for emboldened White House
Posted on 01/09/2003 6:22:39 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
It's full speed ahead for emboldened White House
With GOP Congress, Bush pushes agenda, but will he overreach?
01/09/2003
WASHINGTON - President Bush wasn't exactly shy about pushing his agenda when he took office two years ago, even after a disputed election in which he lost the popular vote.
So why would he be reticent after voters gave him a Republican Congress?
Mr. Bush isn't wasting any time showing his hand, pitching bigger-than-expected tax cuts and renominating two controversial jurists the very day the new GOP-controlled House and Senate took office.
"They sort of take the steamroller approach," said presidential scholar Robert Dallek. "It's like, 'We won that election, and we have a mandate, and we're going to follow up on it.' "
The downside of boldness, he and other analysts added, is overreaching and giving your political enemies too many juicy targets.
Democrats are certainly taking aim, ascribing Mr. Bush's aggressiveness to a desire to repay wealthy contributors and conservatives in the GOP, even as he considers whether to launch military action against Iraq.
"It is unfortunate that President Bush has chosen in this moment of national crisis, with war looming on the horizon, to be a divider and not a uniter," said Ralph Neas, president of the People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group.
Mr. Bush and his aides said that it's the president's job to lead and set the agenda and that he will work with Democrats to get things done. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, "the president believes we are off to a good bipartisan start" with Wednesday's signing of a bill extending unemployment benefits.
"I signed this, and I intend to sign a lot of other bills this year," Mr. Bush said after putting pen to parchment. "And I know the only reason I'll be able to do so is because we're going to work together."
Democrats complained that the 13-week unemployment extension wasn't enough and that on other issues, Mr. Bush's actions reflect pure partisanship.
They were particularly angered by the renomination of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering for an appeals court slot. Last year, the Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the promotion, saying Judge Pickering's record reflected insensitivity on civil-rights issues.
'A cosmetic change'
Civil-rights groups and some members of Congress believed Judge Pickering's chances to be renominated went downhill after one of his patrons, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., surrendered his leadership position after praising Strom Thurmond's segregationist campaign of 1948.
"The Bush administration wasted no time in proving that Senator Lott's demotion was simply a cosmetic change," said a statement from Americans For Democratic Action.
The ADA and other groups also protested the renomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for a federal appellate judgeship, citing her rulings against abortion rights and consumers. But the Pickering nomination drew more attention because of the Lott affair.
"After the Democratic Senate confirmed 100 of the president's judicial nominees in just 17 months, I had hoped that the White House would reconsider such a divisive step as this renomination," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "This is a nomination that divides the American people and divides the Senate."
White House aides said critics distorted Judge Pickering's record during hearings last year and that he would have been confirmed had his nomination reached the full Senate floor.
Mr. Bush "believes that Judge Pickering has an excellent record and deserves support from the Senate," said White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.
Analysts said the Pickering revival, as well as the tax cuts, simply reflect the interests of Mr. Bush's conservative supporters and contributors.
"These are the folks who stood up for him - not the moderates - when he was fighting for his life in the 2000 election," said Allan Lichtman, who teaches history at American University in Washington, D.C. "These are the folks who gave him his victory in the 2002 congressional election."
While Democrats have argued that Mr. Bush's moves reflect concern for the rich and neglect of minorities, they may not be able to make that case to the American public, Mr. Lichtman said.
"Democrats have not shown they're able to go toe-to-toe with him on ideological issues," Mr. Lichtman said.
White House aides said that Mr. Bush will work with Democrats on any issue, saying voters demand that the parties work together.
"The president intends to continue reaching out across the partisan divide," Mr. McClellan said.
They also recognize that while Republicans can dominate legislation in the House, Democrats in the Senate can use the filibuster and other parliamentary tactics to force compromise.
Economic front
Mr. Bush, who saw his father's presidency sink in the wake of recession, also wants to get his economic message out, analysts said - something that may not be easy if he is leading a war in Iraq.
Some observers expected Mr. Bush's economic stimulus package to total $300 billion over a decade; it wound up at $674 billion, including the elimination of tax cuts on stock dividends.
Democrats said the plan favors the rich and returns precious little money to the middle class to spend in the short term. They also said it would turn budget deficits into chasms, taking money away from programs such as Social Security and homeland defense.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., likened Mr. Bush to the captain of a ship sailing into iceberg-filled waters.
"He shouts, 'Full speed ahead!' " Mr. Conrad said. " 'Don't worry about the future!' "
Bush aides called the program a balanced approach to get people back to work.
"The president made a proposal that he thinks is the ideal and the best proposal to get the economy going and growing and to create jobs for America's workers," Mr. Fleischer said.
Analysts noted that, like many domestic plans, Mr. Bush's package is more like an opening bid subject to negotiation and compromise, especially with more moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats.
That happened with Mr. Bush's tax package of 2001, in which he originally sought a $1.6 trillion cut but wound up with $1.35 trillion over 10 years. Mr. Bush later signed a landmark education bill that contained similar compromises.
These accomplishments ran counter to the idea that Mr. Bush could not govern amid the fallout from the disputed 2000 election, analysts said.
White House aides said Mr. Bush won the election fairly and felt duty-bound to follow through on the agenda he campaigned on.
Then, the tax cut and education successes increased the confidence of Mr. Bush and his team, analysts said.
"I think they were a bit emboldened by that," said Thomas Patterson, who teaches at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "They were certainly emboldened by the 2002 election."
E-mail djackson@dallasnews.com
WASHINGTON - President Bush wasn't exactly shy about pushing his agenda when he took office two years ago, even after a disputed election in which he lost the popular vote....etc.
It seems that this David Jackson of the Dallas Mourning News hates President Bush. It seems every article he writes about Bush is always very slanted anti-Bush...
Geez... get over it already.
I can't wait until after the 2004 landslide so that these whiners will just shut up!
"After the Democratic Senate confirmed 100 of the president's judicial nominees in just 17 months, I had hoped that the White House would reconsider such a divisive step as this renomination," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "This is a nomination that divides the American people and divides the Senate."Actually, the Liberal 'RATS will USE this to Divide Amerika and make it sound like Pickering is a racist, etc. If they keep repeating the lie over and over, people will believe it. That's their approach. I hope President Bush stands up to them and exposes their Divide Amerika approach. They think that the GOP won big in 2002? If they keep up their act of the past two year for the NEXT two years, "they ain't seen nothin' yet!" The GOP, with Bush at the wheel, will expand their positions in the House, the Senate and Bush will be re-elected, imho.....
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No. What Bush is doing now reflects his own core values. He is a man of principle and strong convictions who believes in lower taxes and judges who will interpret the constitution as it is, and not make it up as they go along.
Are these guys ever gonna figure this man out? (rhetorical question......of course not).
.........and their own stupidity.
Seriously, they wouldn't recognize the courage of conviction.......doing what's right, and not what poll results tell you....... if it smacked them in the face.
People for the American Way.
The Americans for Democratic Action
Alan Lichman, professor.
Demo Sen. Conrad.
Other 'regular , ordinary' Sen. Edwards type people.
The dimms are going to be all of the media whining, disappointed and complaining about everything the President says and does. This is going to wear on the public's last nerve rather quickly.
The New York Times Slimes Judge Pickering
SENATOR EDWARDS OPPOSES CONFIRMATION OF JUDGE PICKERING. February 26, 2002
ACLJ Calls on Senate to Approve Nomination of Judge Pickering and Urges Senate to Uphold the Constitution and the Democratic Process. ...
There is a "hit memo" prepared by one Ralph Neas that has been lip-synched by the Democrats, and now by the Editors. Mr.Neas makes a thing of such attack pieces, having done so on Judge Bork, Clarence Thomas, and a host of others.
... Democrats Resort to Misrepresentation and Distortion in Rejection of Judge Pickering.
... 5th Circuit, it became clear that the Senator Leahy and his fellow Democrats on the committee had no interest in the facts or Judge Pickering's qualifications. ...
>The far-left's carefully orchestrated attacks on Judge Pickering have been particularly nasty, smearing him as a racist without ever actually mentioning the word. His real record — one of following precedents as a judge, testifying against a leader of the Ku Klux Klan in 1967 and putting his words about racial reconciliation into action — is an inconvenience liberal interest groups have chosen to ignore.......... Exit stage right Senator Byrd....
The Socialist Left’s agenda to keep judges who exclude all conservative rules of law is the intent. Folks, we have a President who respects the Constitution of the United States and the American people he represents...What a breath of Fresh Air!
I dunno, justshe......yesterday lil tommy called the tax plan obscene........how much more shrill can that little twit get?
They look bad to the average American, and IMO, the more they talk, the better the President looks.
Mr.M
And the problem with it is?
Overreach? If President Bush gave the socialist everything they wanted they would still be complaining, because that is what they do.
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