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.
You're right and we will have to P.U.S.H. = pray until something happens.
As far as I'm concerned, not only are those who stayed home in protest not conservative.........they're not even decent Americans.
Our soldiers have bled and died for our right to vote. To stay home because you haven't gotten everything you wanted is to spit on the graves of those who have fallen for our our right to be free.
I think NOTHING of those who betrayed us on November 7th and didn't vote, or voted for a loser third party and took away the victory of the Republican. I don't respect them at all.
Perhaps you're right about them rolling over, but I've always felt that Bush is an excellent user of Machiavellian techniques. I still do, but question where his true core lies.
That does not make you and the others right. He is NOT a liberal.
I have tired of you. Sorry.
AMEN, ohioWfan.
I agree with your every word!
Bless you, my dear and cherished FRiend.
Demoralized? HAR! They will know the factual meaning of demoralized very soon.
I have no use for voters who stayed home. NONE.
The stakes were too high and they folded.
I'll catch you later. I have things to do that can't be stalled any longer.
LOL! I'm getting outta here too. Miles to go before I sleep....... :)
Lieberman wants to caucus with the Democrats.
The same bill Fats Kennedy is critical of?
Worse than that they are liberal and not just on certain issues to them they are politically liberal as well.
Correct liberal on certain moral issues does not make you a liberal
I really wish the Rats would just go straight for impeachment
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That’s not going to happen and you aren’t going to be happy with what happens when they start the impeachment talk.
Many may not have stayed at home but who did they vote for as pointed out by several on this forum in many cases it looks as if they split the vote by voting libertarian.
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