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Bush strategy: Bash Democratic Congress
Seeks confirmation of attorney general and major spending bills
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WASHINGTON - President Bush's agenda these days is not subtle: Blast Democratic lawmakers for ineptitude. Then find a way to do it again.
Even with the factors working against him - record-low approval ratings, fading public attention and dwindling time in office - Bush still talks like a leader whose hand has never been stronger. Backed by a veto power that's hard to override, Bush has taken to blistering Congress in a remarkably relentless fashion.
The latest scolding came Thursday. Bush accused Democrats of forgetting the lingering terrorist threat and putting the nation at risk. Then he prodded Congress to give him what he wants - confirmation of his attorney general, a revamped government surveillance law and defense spending bills he can support.
This was a year that began with Bush talking of getting a targeted agenda through Congress; now, Congress is the target. It started when Bush challenged lawmakers to get him major spending bills by the Oct. 1 start of the 2008 budget year. When that didn't happen, he went on the offensive and has not stopped.
'Fiscal showdown in Washington'
On Oct. 15, the president almost gleefully told an Arkansas audience, "You're fixing to see what they call a fiscal showdown in Washington." Two days later, he called a news conference to point out - eight straight times - that "Congress has work to do."
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After dashing to California to comfort victims of wildfires, Bush went before the media to admonish Congress for wasting time while he was gone. And a few days later, with House Republican leaders by his side, Bush denounced Congress as do-nothing once more.
"Congress is not getting its work done," he said. "We're near the end of the year, and there really isn't much to show for it."
Veto is the best tool
Bush's approach is seemingly a world away from the conciliatory tone of a year ago, when Democrats won Congress. Several reasons explain why.
For starters, as Bush said himself, the bully pulpit and the veto are the best tools he's got.
He never vetoed a spending bill when Republicans ran Congress and the budget grew, although aides say he affected the bottom line with veto threats.
Now he seems eager to veto one.
"I don't think this is a bad strategy for the president," said John Fortier, a research fellow who studies politics and elections at the American Enterprise Institute. "Republican unity has suffered some in recent years, and for Bush to return to a theme of fiscal restraint, I think it's a natural for him."
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Spotlight shines on what is left undone
The White House says Bush has every right to call out Congress, since lawmakers control what laws are approved and when.
Bush is genuinely frustrated, aides said, that Congress is behind on all the major spending bills and poised again to send him a children's health insurance bill even knowing he will veto it.
"Shining a spotlight on what they have not done - either because they're unwilling to or unable to - is important for people to know and understand," said the president's counselor, Ed Gillespie. "I just think it's helpful for the voters to understand that this is something we have no control over here."
Clearly, making Democrats look bad also has implications for 2008. Bush can't run again, but he can try to influence who controls Congress.
Democrats say Bush is isolated, dismissive of true cooperation, and overlooking their work on college aid, national security and the minimum wage.
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