A Reversal of Fortune for Bush’s Political Capital

[unhappycamper]

A Reversal of Fortune for Bush’s Political Capital
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: June 30, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 29 — After a string of Republican defections this week — on Iraq, immigration and domestic eavesdropping — President Bush enters the final 18 months of his presidency in danger of losing control over a party that once marched in lockstep with him.

First, two prominent Republican senators broke with the president on Iraq. Then, Mr. Bush’s party abandoned him in droves on the immigration bill, sending the measure to its death in the Senate, despite the president’s fervent lobbying for it.

And when Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to issue subpoenas to the White House for documents related to its domestic eavesdropping program, three Republicans, including a longtime loyalist, Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, joined them, and another three did not take a position.

For a president who once boasted that he had political capital and intended to use it, the back-to-back desertions demonstrated starkly just how little of that capital is left. With the nation turning its attention to who will succeed Mr. Bush — and Republican presidential candidates increasingly distancing themselves from him — even allies say it could become increasingly difficult for the president to assert himself over his party, much less force the Democratic majority in Congress to bend to his will.

~snip~

An important test of Mr. Bush’s continued hold over his party will come in September, when his troop buildup in Iraq will be re-evaluated on Capitol Hill, and he will almost certainly face Republican pressure to shift course. Senators Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and George V. Voinovich of Ohio argued for a new direction this week. Even Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, has strongly suggested Republicans will demand a change.

“I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall,” Mr. McConnell told reporters last month, “and I expect the president to lead it.”



more

[deutsey]

1. "Final 18 months"

Man, that's music to my ears.

Assuming he doesn't declare himself president-for-life in the event of a national "emergency."

[frogcycle]

2. Lest it be overlooked

“I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall,” Mr. McConnell told reporters last month, “and I expect the president to lead it.”

In politicalspeak, that's a threat. It's pretty much analogous to a corporation giving someone the opportunity to resign.

[Birthmark]

3. That's what happens when...

...you spend your political capital on magic beans. It's in the Bible, I think.

[madokie]

4. all I can think of is Cornered Rats

there's a whole lot of them and they'll turn on each other, mark my words on that.

bushieboy & company are going down bigtime soon. methinks