By DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 15, 2005, 07:51
As President George W. Bush jets off to Asia, he flees a country
bitterly divided by his policies and a Republican party in open
revolt over his many failures.
"The mood in both the White House and the nation harkens back to the
days of Lyndon Johnson and Richard M. Nixon," says retired political
science professor George Harleigh, who served in the Nixon
administration. "Nixon was able to fly to China and, for a while,
bury his problems with diplomatic triumphs. Nixon, like Bush, was a
flawed President. Unlike Bush, Nixon had diplomatic skills."
Bush leaves behind a nation in turmoil, ripped apart by an unpopular
war in Iraq and increasingly distrustful of the leader who sent
Americans to die there. His use of Veterans Day to attack opponents
of his war has angered and further alienated veterans' groups –
another political misstep by an administration marred by frequent
and escalating screw ups.
"The president resorted to his old playbook of discredited rhetoric
about the war on terror and political attacks, as his own political
fortunes and credibility diminish," says Senate Minority Leader
Harry Reid.
With polls showing 57 percent of the American people believe Bush
lied to lead this country into war in Iraq, Republican political
strategists now tell their candidates to avoid any association with
the President and to moderate their views away from the extreme
right wing positions of the GOP.
"The President has gone too far and the party has gone too far,"
says Harleigh. "Those who return to the center might stand a chance
in next year's midterm elections. Those who stick with the President
and the far right do not."
Even notorious conservatives like Pennsylvania Senator Rick
Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, are avoiding
appearances with Bush. Santorum citied "scheduling conflicts" that
kept him from appearing with Bush during the President's Veterans
Day attack on Iraqi war critics but Santorum also told radio talk
show jock Don Imus that he does not intend to appear with the
President for the time being.
"Santorum needs a degree of separation, to establish independence
from the President so voters believe he represents their interests,"
says Terry Madonna, political analyst and pollster at Franklin and
Marshall College in Pennsylvania. "Republicans like him have every
reason to be concerned and they are."
Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona says he won't campaign with
Bush. When asked is he wanted the President to come to his district,
Hayworth replied "In a word, no. Not at this time." Hayworth also
says he will not use the President in any campaign ads.
Other Republicans admit Bush is dragging the party down.
"Bush is in a funk," says former Senate majority leader Bob
Dole. "He's about hit rock bottom and the party is down there with
him."
But others say the President's fall can continue and, with it, the
fortunes of the GOP. A last-minute visit to Virginia to stump for
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore is cited as one of
the reasons Kilgore lost a race he had in the bag weeks earlier and
the losing GOP candidate in New Jersey blames the President's
unpopularity for his loss.
"If Bush's numbers were where they were a year ago, or even six
months ago, I think we would have won," Doug Forrester said after
losing to Democrat Jon Corzine.
Other Republicans mired in scandal face tough election battles next
year. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, caught up in an insider
stock investigation, would lose if the election were held today, a
poll by Middle Tennessee State University shows.
Bush is trying to turn the tide by launching a new series of attacks
on his opponents, a well-worn strategy often used by chief political
advisor Karl Rove to rescue his President in times of crisis.
But backlash against the Veterans Day speech suggest the public
isn't buying the act this time around.
"The public has heard all this before and it isn't selling this time
around," says political scientist Harleigh. "With apologies to
Meredith Wilson, the Republicans got trouble. That starts with `T'
and that rhymes with `B' and that stands for `Bush.'"
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