Posted on 11/11/2006 4:08:13 AM PST by MadIvan
On the morning after the mid-term elections, a humbled President George W Bush called it "a thumping".
But yesterday he described the disastrous result for the Republicans, when Congress turned from Republican red to Democrat blue, as a "great opportunity".
His aides were briefing that he now had the chance to build a domestic policy legacy and use his final two years in the White House to prove that politicians could get things done in Washington.
After a White House coffee meeting yesterday, Mr Bush chuckled as Senator Dick Durbin, part of the new Democratic leadership in the Senate, joked: "I do want to say thanks personally to the president and vice-president for their conciliatory gesture by wearing blue ties today.
"From our side, we think that is a symbolic indication."
Conservative Republicans and wary Democrats fear that Mr Bush might indeed try to steal the Democrats' clothes. "They talked about issues that people care about, and they won," he told the senators.
As a lame-duck president after years of poor relations with Democrats who were bitter about being frozen out of the decision-making process, turning opportunity into legislative reality will be one of the biggest challenges of Mr Bush's political career.
The message from the voters was that they rejected one-party rule in Washington and wanted to see whether divided government could lead to the kind of results Mr Bush was unable to achieve when Republicans were the kings of Capitol Hill.
Having been swept into power on the backs of their condemnation of a "do-nothing Congress", there will be pressure on Democrats to demonstrate that they can do business with Mr Bush. The president will want to leave office with achievements under his belt and use his power of veto sparingly.
"The Democrats should adopt a good government strategy rather than a take-no-prisoners strategy," said Senator Birch Bayh, a Democrat who served in the Senate for 18 years.
He believed that Republicans in Congress would adopt a new approach. "They've gotten the signal that people didn't like what was going on, that the well was poisoned. They're not going to be bomb throwers."
In 1996, President Bill Clinton and a Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives introduced a welfare reform Bill that became a landmark piece of social legislation. Both parties claimed credit for it. Republican presidents have also signed legislation sent to them by Democratic houses of Congress.
To the dismay of conservative Republicans, Mr Bush has already indicated that he agrees with the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage. But the centrepiece of his last 24 months in office could be a comprehensive overhaul of America's immigration laws.
His desire for tough border security measures combined with opportunities for many of America's 12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens is shared by more Democrats than Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Gardner Peckham, a senior aide to Newt Gingrich, speaker of the House after the Republican takeover of Capitol Hill in 1994, said: "Democrats will have to be very careful not to appear like they're looking backwards and wanting retribution.
"They won't want to look like they're the source of the problem. But they're not going to want the president to look good on any of these issues. The prize is the White House in 2008. Control of Congress is great, but without the White House you can't control the agenda."
Immigration, he suggested, would be "an interesting test" of whether genuine cooperation was possible.
That's because Republicans have been abysmal in defending their opposition to it. When Rat candidates talk about the minimum-wage and Republicans just sit there and let the lies go unanswered then it becomes a popular issue.
"Sorry if I hurt your feelings, Enoch."
No problem.
Agree. Total giveaway, post #104:
I remembered when Bush first announced the Iraq war. My gut reaction was "you bastard".
That's a lefty DNA test, right there.
LOL! First time I have seen that one. It's great!
God bless President Bush!
But then again, I've always felt that if you go around the circle far enough to the right, you end up joining the left.
That is exactly what's happened here, IMO. There's not a whole lot of difference between them.
And the truth is, that President Bush wouldn't have to be negotiating with Democrats, at least in the Senate, if it hadn't been for the libertarian vote against the Republicans in Missouri and Montana.
I hold them partially responsible for the disaster that occurred on November 7th.
If we had held those two seats, we wouldn't have lost support for our troops, for the unborn, for lower taxes, for origninalist judges, or for the war on terror.
Dead giveaway, IMO.
How Dane. I don't have the power to tell the MSM to break their programming so I can give a televised speech. Bush does. All Bush has to do is make a simple statement saying the minimum-wage doesn't work and give a short explanation why. Sure the MSM and Dims will say he's evil and in bed with corporate executives who are "pulling his strings" but who cares?
Bush actually doesn't. The drive by media will bury his remarks in page A-15 or 15 minutes into a TV news broadcast.
Sorry, you're too quick to slam the GOP and POTUS.
Sirens going off here.
"they claim to be the greatest conservatives ever on Free Republic and then they sound just like Kerry, Piglosi, Dubin, Klintoon, Kennedy or the Bush haters"
'LOL! First time I have seen that one. It's great!'
I just 'created it!'. For years I have posted comments/replies after some walk on the water pseudo conservative posted terrible things about GW, what is the difference between their rabid hatred of GW versus that of the rats.
Absolutely they are as bad as the liberal they want to tell people what they want and not listen to what they actually want.
His news conference after the election really made me angry with him. He came off as a wimp. I am still mad!!!
It's a wonderful creation. Back to the lab, Dr, Frankenstein. More monsters to create...lol.
Now they want and believe the President can control the media how left wing communist is that.
Big time!
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