Ex-Bush Aides: It's Over
More former top aides to President Bush this week have joined the chorus that the administration is deep into lame-duck status with little energy to address much of its outstanding agenda.
"Look, there's no energy there. I don't see them doing anything important," says a former key insider. "They're stuck on the war."
Another former Bush communications adviser said, "Nobody's paying attention to them. That's why the press and Washington is already so focused on the 2008 race. It's over."
Former Bush aides who had worked on the president's domestic policy agenda add that that master plan seems to have gone into limbo with little talk or movement on issues like reforming Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; changing the tax code, or even working on immigration. After the election, top aides had said the president would use the first half of the year to aggressively push his agenda, but that hasn't happened, with the exception of his call to action in the State of the Union and follow-up speeches linked to the release of the budget.
But current Bush aides said that the push will come and that the president first has to deal with the budget and his significant leadership changes in Iraq before turning the spotlight on domestic issues. Also, they said, cabinet officials are to play a larger role on issues like Social Security and other entitlement reform and it's unfair to just look to the White House for leadership.
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