Bush: Lamest of the Lame Ducks Limps Toward Irrelevance
Lonely at the bottom of the top: As the Democrats enjoy their newfound ascendancy in the Congress, the president is finding less and less to enjoy in the waning years of his second term. Indeed, if he wasn’t such an arrogant and ignorant bastard, one could almost be tempted to feel a little bit sorry for him. Congressional Quarterly’s Craig Crawford offers a snapshot of the Bush administration in decline.
With a new Congress that’s run by Democrats, a restive public that’s pining for change and a government in Iraq that’s descending into chaos, the way forward in Washington might not include George W. Bush.
It seems the president is positioning himself as just another spectator on the outskirts of power — firing off letters to the editor. Perhaps he should start his own blog.Despite the power he has to ramp up his use of the veto, and his tenacious hold on his powers as commander in chief, Bush faces a tough challenge to remain relevant in the waning 24 months of his presidency. Indeed, if not for his war-making clout, this president might be the lamest lame duck ever.
There was something almost sad about Bush putting his own name on an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal that laid out his legislative agenda on the eve of the formal Democratic takeover of Capitol Hill. Clearly gone are the days when Vice President Dick Cheney could use a private meeting with Republican lawmakers to set the congressional priorities list. Now, it seems, the president is positioning himself as just another spectator on the outskirts of power — firing off letters to the editor. Perhaps he should start his own blog.
Democrats are making the most of returning to power at the Capitol after a dozen years on the outs. Armed with a midterm election mandate widely seen as a repudiation of Bush, they are talking tough about dealing with the White House. For symbolic starters, Cheney was compelled to give up his ornate office just off the House floor to Charles B. Rangel, the New York Democrat who is now chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
As the clock ticks past the three-quarters mark on the Bush presidency, it is the new, 110th Congress and its crop of 65 new faces that will appear the fresher and more promising, garnering the lion’s share of news media attention — while administration figures come across more and more as yesterday’s news.
In response to the political test posed by that dynamic, Bush is calling for bipartisanship. Funny how the losing side in an election almost always ends up being the one to call for magnanimity. After 12 years of being made almost invisible, especially in the House, Democrats appear in no mood to do anything but pay lip service to the current calls for collaboration. Although careful not to say so publicly, congressional Democrats are champing at the bit for payback. Evicting Cheney from his office was just the beginning.
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