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.
Whenever any liberal says that they are concerned about spending and deficits, we should laugh in their face and call them liars.
Who works for minimum wage these days anyway? Probably the lowest paying jobs are in the fast food industry, and almost every fast food joint in this area has help wanted signs out front offering at least $7.50 an hour. Our local Pizza Hut even advertises for applicants on it's place mats. Supply and demand works the same way in the job market as it does in the goods and services market.
good/great/smart Idea.
...Too bad, Many Conservatives paid "lip service" to the principles that got them to Washington D.C.
They got there, forgot/disregarded their promises.
the GOP spent $$$$ like the 'Rats, John Q. Citizen couldn't tell the difference. :(
the 'Rats never made "any bones" about their principles (they never had any, to begin with....except, they wanted to get back into power, regardless the cost.
I am pretty sure that he will go with raising the minimum wage and immigration after that the dems can forget it.
Overall, your anger is unjustified, and your claims to believe that Bush is a 'decent man' questionable.
As for this "Conservative Movement" stuff........I look for actions, not words, and I see that President Bush has moved the entire country to the right through his strong moral, pro-life, pro-marriage stand, and most significantly through his judicial nominees domestically, and his strong pro-American stand internationally. In the end, Bush will have done more for the conservative movement than Reagan. (And the conservative 'purists' were just as mad at Reagan in 1986 as they are at Bush in 2006).
Whether you are a troll or an irrational extremist doesn't matter much. You say the same things anyway, and IMO, in either case, you can't be trusted.
Aliton = Alito,
;)
I agree.
The Democrat plan (with the help from Bush) is not to covet the conservative voters, the plan is to simply replace us with Hispanics.
Did you hear the 700 mile Fence is DOA now? (sigh)
Bush signed the bill. Immigration bots scoffed at him and his signing of it, and we lost the House, so lost the legislation.
Thanks a bunch.
You can hate the President and blame him all you want, but at least take responsibility for what YOU did to lose the fence.
Wow. That's quite a statement.
Facts don't mean a thing, polly. Just angry, hate-filled rhetoric.
Unfortunately, it has its consequences...........and one of them is losing the fence that we all wanted.....
I have never understood this kind of thrashing anger. It seems very counterproductive.
But...it is what it is.
The only things that are accomplished by it are negatives.
That's why I think most of them are trolls. Call me a skeptic, but I expect conservatives to be rational.....and this kind of stuff is the antithesis of that.
Beat them at their own game bump
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