Posted By: Janine Delacroix
By Craig CrawfordSun Nov 12, 10:40 AM ET
George W. Bush now faces an opportunity for detente with his domestic political foes that is akin to Richard M. Nixon opening the diplomatic door to Communist China. Early post-election indicators suggest that the president will dump the harsh partisan rhetoric against Democrats and make peace.
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He has no choice. Last Tuesday’s “thumping,” as Bush termed the Election Day repudiation of his party, endangers any White House hopes for a positive legacy unless the president caves on a variety of fronts, starting with Iraq.
Accepting Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld’s resignation on the day after the midterm congressional elections served Bush as a first step in his desperate need to make the last half of his second term a journey that encourages the public — and historians — to overlook his miserable performance in the first half.
If caving to Rumsfeld’s critics truly means that Bush is open to center-of-the-road paths in his dealings with Congress, there is hope for a revival of his second- term agenda. For starters, his commitment to immigration reform actually has a better chance with Democrats controlling Congress, as it is the conservative forces within his own party that have thwarted his proposals. And look for him to drop other socially conservative causes, such as banning gay marriage, as fast as he jettisoned Rumsfeld.
The president’s potential move toward the center presents one of the most fascinating questions about the nation’s current political landscape: Can the conservative movement survive its drubbing in this election if Bush abandons its tenets to cozy up to Democrats in a bid to save his presidential legacy?
Just as the most ardent anti-Communists faded away in the wake of Nixon’s stunning reversal of his role as their champion, the once-mighty coalition of social conservative groups could find themselves on the sidelines in what’s left of the Bush administration.
Signaling openness to a change in Iraq policy was the first imperative served by Rumsfeld’s departure. Republican campaign operatives are furious that it was not done weeks or months ago when a turn of this pressure valve could have helped the party keep control of Congress. But waiting might have been wise. Ousting Rumsfeld earlier might not have saved the GOP’s election hopes.
In hindsight, the mood for change among voters appears to have been overwhelming. And a pre-election firing would have made a public spectacle of a serious rift within Bush’s high command, between Rumsfeld’s White House defenders, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, and those who had grown to despise the Pentagon chief. The pro-Rumsfeld forces were far more subdued after the voter thumping than they would have been before the election.
p>Moving so quickly after the voting to spring Rumsfeld also served Bush’s immediate need for a lame duck prevention plan. There is nothing like a judicious firing to prove that you are still in charge. And the accompanying news media frenzy helped step on coverage of victorious Democrats as they were rolling out a long-planned choreography of interviews and press conferences to introduce to the public their House Speaker-to-be, Nancy Pelosi, who had studiously avoided the limelight in the midterm campaign to prevent success of the GOP efforts to demonize her.
Most important, dumping Rumsfeld gave Democrats what they wanted, laying a foundation for a season of deal-making with the new congressional leadership. And it bought time for both sides.
Bush needed to stem the flow of Democratic harangues against his Iraq policy, considering that he has been wholly unsuccessful in answering those complaints to the public’s satisfaction. Even some Democrats welcomed a breather in the bashing of Bush on Iraq. Now that they have won control of the House and Senate, they no longer can dodge the obvious questions seeking specifics on their own blueprint for Iraq. The Rumsfeld maneuver allows Democrats to adopt a wait-and-see approach.
In the end, Bush must sideline right-wingers or sideline himself. This is an opportune time for him to revive his 2000 campaign vow to be a “compassionate conservative” and to embrace Pelosi’s opening bid to raise the minimum wage, expand access to student loans and remove the ban against negotiating prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients.
Die-hard conservatives will probably set themselves on fire if Bush starts making deals with Democrats. But there is no longer any percentage for him in playing the partisan warrior. Spending the next two years only vetoing Democrats would make him a martyr to conservatives, but deny his presidency a chance to crawl out of the wreckage of last Tuesday’s tsunami.
Craig Crawford is a news analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and “The Early Show” on CBS. He can be reached at ccrawford@cq.com. This column originally appeared in the Nov. 13 issue of CQ Weekly. For more information about CQ Weekly, please visit CQ.com.
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