Thread: Some say Bush now on sidelines of issue

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... htm?csp=34

WASHINGTON — Embattled by Iraq and moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, President Bush on Thursday watched the collapse of what seems destined to be his last major domestic initiative.
Making the sting of defeat worse: The opposition was led by fellow Republicans.

Bush long has touted an immigration overhaul as a touchstone of his presidency. Now the Senate rebuff reflects the weakness of a lame-duck who can no longer muster approval from even a third of the American public.

Immigration becomes a hot-button issue for the 2008 presidential field to debate.

"Republicans are looking out for themselves, and they're not going to give up any of their political support to make Bush happy," says political scientist Gary Jacobson of the University of California at San Diego. "They're looking out for their own futures because he doesn't have one anymore. He's done."

A glum Bush didn't bother to hide his disappointment when he talked to reporters after the vote.

Republican strategist Charles Black calls the vote "a bipartisan failure" that also raises questions about congressional Democrats, including Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "So far Sen. Reid is compiling a great record of getting nothing done," Black says.

White House spokesman Kevin Sullivan says Bush "fought the good fight, and now we'll get after it on other issues," including a push for fiscal discipline.

The agenda during the final 18 months of his tenure is no longer Bush's to shape, however. The administration is braced for a battle over Iraq policy in September, when U.S. commanders promise assessments of progress made by this year's increased U.S. troop levels. Republican senators, including Richard Lugar of Indiana, a leading voice on foreign policy, already are calling for a pull-down of forces.

And the White House announced Thursday that Bush was invoking executive privilege to reject subpoenas Congress issued seeking documents on the firing of nine U.S. attorneys — setting up a confrontation that could be headed to the courts.

Presidential scholar Fred Greenstein of Princeton says Bush's situation reminds him of "the ragged ends of a whole collection of modern presidencies," including Richard Nixon amid Watergate and Lyndon Johnson during Vietnam. Greenstein has delayed publishing the third edition of his highly regarded book on presidential leadership, The Presidential Difference, until it was clear how Bush's immigration push would fare.

"It's a plus for his impulse to lead," Greenstein says of Bush. "But he's caught up in the larger Greek tragedy of his presidency," now driven by the Iraq war.

With little prospect of congressional action this year or next, an immigration system that both sides describe as broken now becomes fodder in the campaign for the next president.

The Democratic senators running for president — Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut — voted to advance the bill.

The major Republican candidates, with the exception of Arizona Sen. John McCain, opposed the bill and cheered its demise. Conservative Republicans and talk-show hosts demand tougher steps against illegal immigrants. "No special deal for permanent residency or citizenship for illegals," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney declared

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani dismissed the bill as "a hodgepodge at best."

McCain, who helped negotiate the compromise, said he was "disappointed" by the outcome.

Still, GOP consultant and former McCain aide Dan Schnur says the Arizona senator's prospects could be helped by removing the issue from center stage. Also helped: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been weighing an independent presidential bid fueled by frustration with the inability of the two parties to address big issues.

"John McCain dodged a bullet," Schnur says, "And Michael Bloomberg gets an issue gift-wrapped."

The Democratic senators running for president — Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois, Joseph Biden of Delaware and Chris Dodd of Connecticut — voted to advance the bill.

That's exactly why we must do everything in our power to ensure none of these folks ever sit in the Oval Office!

I hope this defeat silences Bush once and for all. Aren't we all utterly sick of this sell-out president and his traitorous cabinet pandering to Mexico, aliens, and criminal employers?

I agree... Tom Tancredo should be the next President of this country.. We have to support him