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"Bush understood that everything-- tax and fiscal policies, judicial nominations, winning the war on terror --depended solely on regaining control of the Senate and holding on to the House. He did it."

What, pray tell, has Bush done to stop the wholesale export of critical industrial research, development, and production to Red China? How has he impeded illegal immigration? How has he confronted and repudiated Islam?

In domestic affairs, GWB is a defensive politician. His goal is to defuse issues that might be used against him in 2004. In this, he's a lot like his father or Nixon. It means that liberal issues become more important, as Bush moves towards liberal positions in an effort to undercut liberal support. His government funding of faith-based social initiatives is in the tradition of Nixon's revenue sharing, a mixture of ostensibly conservative and liberal ends and means.

There certainly are things to complain about in Bush, but after the advertised Reagan and Gingrich "revolutions" didn't happen, it's pretty clear that there will be no Bush "revolution." So maybe he's just clearsighted and honest about what is politically possible. While it's pretty obvious that there won't and couldn't be any large-scale rollback of government programs right now, if Bush does fail on national security or international trade questions, it will come back to haunt him, and us.