Republicans Say Democrats Are Overplaying Probes Of Bush Administration

Republican strategists are increasingly confident that majority Democrats are going too far in investigating the Bush administration over the firing of those U.S. attorneys and other issues, reports chief White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh.

"Every time someone sneezes at the White House, they investigate," says a prominent adviser to a GOP presidential candidate with longtime ties to congressional Republicans. "We did the same thing to Bill Clinton when we were in the majority and overplayed our hand. The Democrats are close to doing the same thing."

Regarding the U.S. attorneys furor, many GOP insiders argue that it's inside baseball and that most Americans don't see any connection to their lives. In addition, the controversy is complex and hard to follow, discouraging voters from paying attention.

"The Democrats are forgetting what we forgot in the Clinton days," the GOP adviser says. "The vast majority of Americans want their president to succeed. They don't like it when the opposition party wants him to fail. And the Democrats appear to want George W. Bush to fail."