White House Week
Democrats Fret Over Hurricane Blowback
Democrats should be taking political solace in the White House's latest woes, but some are concerned their liberal wing is botching its critique of President Bush's hurricane response--by focusing too much on tax increases to pay the bills. "Democrats seem to be almost cheering for tax hikes," says a centrist party strategist with strong ties to Capitol Hill. "They're trying to back Bush into a corner, but it's more like they're caricaturing themselves." Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman was quick to note their fix when he told U.S. News last week that the Democrats' only answer seems to be to increase taxes. (The GOP offers a recovery program, Mehlman says, of empowerment, ownership, and opportunity. "What matters is results," he says.) Still, some liberals hope they can lure Bush into accepting tax increases--such as rolling back the massive tax cuts enacted during his first term--to deal with the Gulf crises. This, of course, was how his father tried to cut the deficit more than a decade ago, a move that backfired big time, and White House insiders say the current Bush won't do it.
When in Doubt, Shoot the Staff
Conservatives chafing at President Bush's Hurricane Katrina spending plan and depressed with his low poll numbers are beginning to blame his top staff for moving too slowly to reverse the slide. Indeed, some suggest that the president needs to bring in new top staff to invigorate his administration. "He needs a new group of people with energy and ideas around him," says a GOP strategist with ties to the White House. "They're like a dying cellphone battery." Ever since the re-election campaign ended, the president's supporters have worried that his top staff was worn out. It's a feeling administration staffers have often concurred with. But White House insiders balk at calls for changes, claiming that the president knows exactly what his political situation is and has a long-term plan built on new initiatives that will drown out the critics next spring.
Have They Finally Found Their Message?
Several Democratic Party elders say that they are now looking at former President Clinton's recent attacks on the Bush administration as the model to use for their up-till-now missing midterm message. The word starting to emerge this week is "competence," that is, Bush and the GOP's lack of it. A former Clinton aide suggests the hurricane disasters create an opportunity for Democrats to argue that government is essential, versus the Republican mantra that government is the enemy.
Shifting the Blame Game to Greenspan
Some GOP lawmakers are mulling demanding that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan leave early--his term runs out in January--to quiet voters back home who are worried about surging gas prices and interest rates. "I'd be surprised if there weren't calls for his resignation," said one Hill aide of the chairman whose Fed last week boosted interest rates for the 11th-straight time. "The members are hearing that there's no inflation, but this guy's raising rates anyway." A Bush insider, however, says Greenspan is safe.
With Kenneth T. Walsh and Paul Bedard Kenneth T. Walsh and Paul Bedard Kenneth T. Walsh and Paul Bedard Kenneth T. Walsh and Paul Bedard
This story appears in the September 26, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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