Bush: Six Years "Ignoring Democrats" While Pressing GOP "To Do His Bidding"
Monday's "White House Memo" by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David Sanger wonder if the Republican losses they expect to roll in on Election Day will at last cause Bush to stop pressing the GOP "to do his bidding on Capitol Hill."
"If the balance of political power in Washington changes on Tuesday, will President Bush change with it?
"From the moment Mr. Bush took office after winning the election but losing the popular vote, he has governed as if he became president by a landslide. Bad news - legislative losses, plunging approval ratings, chaos in Iraq - seems only to stiffen his resolve. Good news - a dip in the unemployment rate, the conviction of Saddam Hussein - reinforces his confidence that his polices at home and abroad are correct."
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"After six years of virtually ignoring Democrats as he pressed his own party to do his bidding on Capitol Hill, Mr. Bush and his aides are charting a course that they say will take the president back to his roots as Texas governor, when he worked in a more bipartisan way with Democrats."
Intelligence reporter Sanger is quite fond of the image of Bush as a unilateral leader deaf to opposing views.
