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June 9, 2007
NEWS ANALYSIS
As Senate Deal Sinks, So Does Bush’s Power
By JIM RUTENBERG
The breakthrough on the “Grand Bargain” on immigration a few weeks ago 
had brought new life to a White House under siege, putting a 
long-sought goal suddenly within reach. After many grim months, there 
was almost giddiness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But that early euphoria only made the Grand Bargain’s Grand Collapse on 
Thursday night all the more of a blow, pointing up a stubbornly 
unshakable dynamic for President Bush in the final 19 months of his 
term: With low approval ratings and the race to succeed him well under 
way, his ability to push his agenda has faded to the point where he can 
fairly be judged to have entered his lame duck period.
In all, 38 of the 48 Senate Republicans effectively voted against the 
White House on the crucial procedural vote on the immigration bill, 
leaving the president’s No. 1 domestic priority somewhere between 
stalled and dead.
The White House has similarly been through a sharp reversal on the 
domestic politics of the Iraq war. After receiving a lift last month in 
the defeat of Democratic efforts to link war finances to Iraq 
withdrawal dates, the White House acknowledged Friday that it could not 
renominate Mr. Bush’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter 
Pace, because of expected opposition on Capitol Hill.
For a president whose muscular assertions of executive authority had 
overshadowed Congress for years, it was a striking indicator of how the 
balance of power in Washington has shifted away from him.
In public, the Bush White House plays down setbacks and seeks to 
project an air of undeterred determination, at home and abroad. In the 
case of the immigration bill, White House officials are vowing to keep 
fighting, with Mr. Bush scheduled to make a trip to Capitol Hill partly 
to lobby for it on Tuesday, his first full day back from Europe.
And, in a show of his resolve, the White House announced late Friday 
that Mr. Bush called Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Trent Lott 
of Mississippi, and Jon Kyl of Arizona, all Republicans, to discuss the 
bill’s resuscitation as he flew aboard Air Force One to Italy from 
Poland.
“I don’t think this issue is over, nor do I think he’s through fighting 
for it,” said Senator Mel Martinez of Florida, the Republican National 
Committee chairman and an administration point man on immigration.
In interviews, White House officials pointed to recent steps the 
president had taken to seize initiative, including his proposal for a 
global goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, his move to tighten 
sanctions against Sudan and his proposed increase in money for AIDS in 
Africa.
“When you look at the issues the president has addressed just in the 
last couple of weeks — AIDS in Africa, climate change, immigration 
reform, trade — that speaks volumes about the sprint for the finish 
that he’s talked about,” said Kevin Sullivan, the White House 
communications director.
Still, even Mr. Martinez acknowledged that Mr. Bush, with less than two 
years in his term, was “at that point all presidents tend to lose some 
influence,” though he hastened to add, “I think you’ll see him 
continuing to be very active.” Mr. Bush would remain relevant, Mr. 
Martinez predicted.
Mr. Bush had long since given up on what was supposed to be the primary 
domestic goal of his second term, an overhaul of Social Security. On an 
array of other issues, whatever progress he had made with a Republican 
Congress during his first six years in the White House has given way to 
partisan deadlock with the new Democratic majority.
Of course, even in weakened states, presidents are hardly irrelevant, 
and that is even more the case during war in general and for Mr. Bush 
in particular, given the terrorist threats to the country and the 
controversy over the war in Iraq.
The White House continued to hold out hope that Democrats will feel 
their own pressure to show some accomplishments before the 2008 
campaign, and will in turn work with the president on crucial 
initiatives like immigration.
Administration spokespeople and allies tried to add to that pressure by 
accusing the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, of failing 
to see the immigration bill through while scheduling a no-confidence 
vote for Monday on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.
The fighting was a far cry from the cooperation Mr. Bush had expected 
on immigration, an issue he had identified as a place of common cause 
with his new Democratic partners last fall. That calculation appeared 
to miss the extent of the passion against the compromise legislation on 
both sides, but, to the president’s clear annoyance, most passionately 
from conservatives.
Given the raw electricity that has historically surrounded the issue 
(even Ronald Reagan drew conservative criticism for failing to halt 
illegal immigration), Mr. Sullivan argued that the party’s sparring was 
“an unfair barometer” of the president’s standing now.
Yet even some close allies were surprised by how Mr. Bush’s advocacy 
for immigration had seemed to hurt his cause within his party when, in 
a speech in Georgia last week, he said those opposed to the bill didn’t 
“want to do what’s right for America.” The statement infuriated Mr. 
Bush’s usually reliable allies on talk radio, in blogs and in Congress, 
galvanizing the right against his plan all the more.
His own party’s gradual edging away from him was also on display 
Tuesday, during the most recent debate among the Republican 
presidential candidates. Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York 
mayor, called the immigration plan a “mess.” Senator John McCain of 
Arizona said early mismanagement of the war had led to needless 
sacrifice, and Tommy Thompson, the president’s own former health and 
human services secretary, joked that if he became president he would 
not use Mr. Bush as an emissary to the United Nations.
Donald L. Evans, a longtime friend of Mr. Bush’s, and a former commerce 
secretary, said in an interview that he did not expect any of this to 
keep Mr. Bush from pressing ahead. He recalled how, when they were 
young oil men in Texas, Mr. Bush was typically undaunted by “dry holes” 
that did not yield oil. And, as for immigration, Mr. Evans said, “This 
is important for him, he’s going to stay focused.”
But, with few other readily achievable major goals in sight, perhaps he 
does not have much choice.
Rich Bond, a former Republican Party chairman and deputy White House 
chief of staff for Mr. Bush’s father, said of the president, “He’s in a 
greatly weakened state, and he’s playing the best hand he can.”

-- 
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in 
England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after 
all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it 
is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a 
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist 
dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to 
the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL 
THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of 
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY 
COUNTRY."
 
--Goering at the Nuremberg Trials