Reign Clouds
The President is fighting a multifront war with allies in very short supply
On the domestic front, Bush initially said he would work with the Democrats. Then he made several moves that antagonized them, such as reaffirming his support for conservative judges, renominating the controversial John Bolton as United Nations ambassador, and calling for congressional approval of warrantless eavesdropping to catch terrorists.
"It may be the president has to go through this period of defiance to show the Democratic Party he can't be intimidated," says Bill Galston, a Democratic strategist and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, "and then he'll sit down and talk to the Democrats about matters of mutual concern." That would follow Bush's pattern as Texas governor, when he worked with Democrats to form a governing coalition in the Legislature.
Says Ken Duberstein, former White House chief of staff to Ronald Reagan: "What Bush has to do is to reach out in deed as well as in word. Some of it is symbolic, but an awful lot of it is the hard work of consultation, cooperation, and compromise."
Soundings. U.S. News has learned that since Election Day, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten has been sounding out Washington insiders about new ideas and the prospects for compromise. Bolten wants Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to become more involved in lobbying Congress on trade, taxes, spending restraint, regulation, and Social Security. Paulson, former head of Goldman Sachs, has strong credibility on Capitol Hill, and Bolten reasons that he might be able to create a more collegial atmosphere.
Yet there are many doubters--and some internal signs that polarization politics will make a comeback. "Josh will try to reach out, but someone will cut his legs off, and that someone is [chief political adviser] Karl Rove," says a senior Republican who informally advises the White House.
"Josh understands the difficult road ahead and the importance of outreach," adds another GOP adviser to the administration. "But Rove doesn't want to take on the right wing"--especially in view of the resentment among many Republicans that Bush waited until the day after the elections to oust unpopular Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. An earlier dismissal might have helped GOP candidates.
Rove argues that Bush should continue to govern from the right. And he has convinced the president that GOP losses in the midterm elections were a product of unique circumstances--corruption scandals and media negativity about Iraq. "It looks like they've decided to be true to the ones that brought them to the dance," says an adviser to the White House. That means the conservative base is likely to hold sway. And that the president is headed for tough times on Capitol Hill.
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