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Bargain
Art Sammler
Mr. Ahlf's disgust with President Bush and the Republican party generally, expressed below, made me think about the recent midterm election and what message, if any, it contained. In particular, to what extent was it an expression of the unpopularity of Mr. Bush per se?
The notable feature of American politics over the six-year period of one-party rule was the cozy bargain between the executive and legislative branches which existed in fact, though it may never have been formally negotiated. Mr. Bush was notoriously complaisant in accepting congressional budgets and earmarks, including an astounding decision to veto nothing for six years. In short, Mr. Bush let the Republican-controlled congress do as it pleased.
In return, the congress was essentially mute on foreign affairs -- individual Democratic members were willing to give hostile speeches to any willing audience, but the congress as an official body remained passive. The three terms of congress were notable for their lack of initiative; the explosion of earmarked pork was just the most visible symptom of a congress with no issues larger than their individual districts to focus on. (Foreign policy remained a political issue as parties sought electoral support, but never a legislative issue.)
This bargain -- and its implicit subversion of the purpose of separation of powers -- was fortunately repudiated in 2006.
Observations
Oddly enough, many conservatives saw what was going on in Congress (the out of control spending) as a problem.
Bush's plummeting numbers, as I've explained earlier, are a product of multiple sources. Democrats who'd never support him no matter what is about 35%, most likely. When he loses the middle, he's probably down another 20-25%.
Where he screws up is that he's now in the position where even former supporters admit he's screwed up on the war, he's never stood up against anything Congress brought to him, and he's out of touch with immigration policies completely. Depending on what poll you look at, somewhere between 80% and 95% of the total US population oppose his amnesty plan, but he just keeps trying to ramrod it through.
Some people might respect him for trying to buck the will of the people; I'm just tired of him being so in the pocket of big business. Like I said below, his record stinks no matter which way you come at it. My only consolation is that Gore probably would have been raising the surrender flag after 9/11; that's probably the only thing he came close to getting right, even if his incompetence has screwed us over since.
[i]Mr. Bush was notoriously complaisant in accepting congressional budgets and earmarks, including an astounding decision to veto nothing for six years. In short, Mr. Bush let the Republican-controlled congress do as it pleased.[/i]
For a couple of bloggers suddenly so critical of President Bush, it strikes me as odd that both of you seem to view Bush as passive with regard to Congress.
Perhaps the reason there were no vetos is that his Congressional liaison people worked behind the scenes and GOT what they wanted in budgets, in exchange for a certain amount of horsetrading.
If so, why would anyone be surprised the president didn't exercise a veto, or even expect him to? He was getting what he wanted via his Congressional liaison people.
I think you might make a case against him for not having different priorities (but then again, it will take years for us to know exactly what he GOT from his horsetrading), but to act as if somehow the President was too timid to veto bad stuff the goofballs in Congress sent him is probably to misrepresent how Washington worked in his first six years in office.
I can accept that President Bush's people might have been working effectively behind the scenes, so that the legislation passed to him was on average to his liking. But it is wildly implausible that they were 100% effective in this. I think complaisance is the only plausible explanation.
Note that this is not the same as timidity; I maintain that the Administration was fairly compensated for its forbearance.
I would actually count myself among President Bush's supporters. With the exception of immigration policy, I think his major policy positions have been correct (though not always successful, viz Social Security reform).
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