Unfriendly homecoming awaits
ANALYSIS Bush returning to shaky support after Asia trip Congressmen worried about midterm elections
WASHINGTON— Most presidents get a boost from overseas trips. President George W. Bush, though, may return from Asia wondering why he left U. S. soil in the first place.
Caught off guard when South Korea announced plans to pull one-third of its troops from Iraq, the president also could look back on the home front and find things have not exactly been quiet. Bush returns late today to even more political acrimony than when he left eight days ago. The corrosive debate over Iraq is eroding his second term- agenda and challenging the ability of Republican leaders in Congress to maintain discipline.
While Bush was away:
The Senate signalled impatience with the war’s direction by voting 79- 19 to require regular reports on progress in Iraq and urging that 2006 be “ a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty.”
Increasingly rebellious Republicans defied their leaders on domestic spending cuts. House leaders narrowly won approval of a five- year budget cut plan in the wee hours of Friday on a 217- 215 vote.
The top House Democrat on military spending, Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, withdrew his support for the war and advocated a pullout over six months. That brought sharp criticism from the White House and led to tumultuous late- night battle when the GOP leaders forced a vote on an immediate pullout measure in hopes of trapping Democrats. It was rejected 403- 3.
In a rare across- the- world exchange of invective, the White House traded daily barbs with its Democratic critics. They accused Bush of manipulating prewar intelligence and deceiving the nation in starting a war he is unable to end. Bush and his aides said Democrats were irresponsible and hypocritical, particularly those who voted in 2002 to authorize the war and now oppose it. So much for the old maxim that “ politics stops at the water’s edge.”
In deference to a president’s conduct of foreign policy, even lawmakers opposed to his approach traditionally held their fire while the chief executive was overseas, especially during wartime.
Bush, however, abruptly softened his attack on war critics while in Beijing after fiercely defending his Iraq policy across Asia, saying it wasn’t unpatriotic to oppose his strategy.
“ People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq,” Bush said yesterday, three days after agreeing with Vice-President Dick Cheney that the critics were “ reprehensible.” He also came to the defence of Murtha. Bush’s own spokesman had compared the hawkish combat- decorated Vietnam veteran to war critic- movie producer Michael Moore and suggested Murtha was counselling surrender to terrorists.
Yesterday, Bush called Murtha a “ fine man and a good man.”
“ I know the decision to call for the immediate withdrawal of our troops by Congressman Murtha was done in a careful and thoughtful way,” the president said. “ I disagree with his position.” Bush met reporters after inconclusive talks with President Hu Jintao about friction in U. S.China relations. Bush ran into stiff resistance from the Chinese to his call for expanding religious freedom and human rights. He also reported no breakthroughs toward reducing China’s massive trade surplus, overhauling its currency system or protecting intellectual property rights. More resistance awaits Bush at home. His slumping approval rating — 37 per cent in an APIpsos poll, the lowest of his presidency — and eroding public support for the Iraq war are taking a toll on the GOP. Nearly 2,100 members of the U. S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003.
Republicans fear losing their majorities in next year’s congressional elections. That is spilling over and causing problems in other areas, from reauthorizing the Patriot Act to trimming programs for education, health and the poor. When the Senate passed a $50 billion tax bill early Friday, it left out one of Bush’s second- term priorities: an extension of tax cuts on dividends and capital gains that are now set to expire after 2008.
“ We talk a lot about the president’s unfavourable ratings. Have you noticed the ratings of Congress lately?” said Senator John McCain ( R- Ariz.). The AP- Ipsos poll showed that only 32 per cent of those surveyed said they approved of the job Congress was doing.
Discontent is growing among Republicans, moderates and conservatives, said Norman Ornstein, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute who specializes in the presidency and Congress. “They probably wouldn’t be angry if Bush were at 55 per cent, or 65 per cent, or even 45 per cent,” he said.
In Bush’s first term, Republican leaders prided themselves on their unity and discipline. They are hampered now, for a variety of reasons: Bush’s plunge in the polls; an unpopular war; the stepping aside of Representative Tom DeLay as House majority leader after his indictment in Texas; and a federal investigation of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s stock transactions.
While Bush takes strong positions, he is not well equipped to make persuasive arguments with the public or Congress or good at give- and- take, said Wayne Fields, director of American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis and a specialist on presidential rhetoric.
“ He’s always shielded from elements in society which are critical. He addresses hand- picked audiences where people don’t heckle him. There’s a protective screen around him. And I think people are starting to react to that,” Fields said.