Some of those weak Hill Republicans, who have marched in lock-step with Bush for the past six years, now claim they want a little distance. That 34% approval is freaking them out...because they are realizing it's true. Bush is their albatross. They own him. They made him. And despite their attempts to spin a distance, there is no distance:
The signs of GOP discontent have been building in the past few months. Dissident Republicans in Congress forced Bush to sign a measure banning torture of detainees despite his initial veto threat, blocked renewal of the USA Patriot Act until their civil liberties concerns were addressed and pressured the White House into accepting legislation on its secret eavesdropping program. By the time the port deal came to light, the uprising was no longer limited to dissidents.What a joke. The Republicans on the Hill have been nothing but flacks for Bush. The Bush/Rove wish is their command.
"We simply want to participate and aren't going to be PR flacks when they need us," [Congressman Mark] Foley said. "We all have roles. We have oversight. When you can't answer your constituents when they have legitimate questions . . . we can't simply do it on trust."
That quote by Foley is one of the few times any GOPer has even used the term "oversight." They may "have oversight" but that doesn't mean they do oversight. Most of the GOPers in the Capitol don't even know what oversight is.
Bush has rolled the Republicans over and over. That's why the Hill Republicans have an ownership in the disaster that is the Bush agenda. Because really, it is a shared Republican agenda. The litany of failures -- including Iraq, Katrina, Afghanistan, port security, the deficit, domestic spying, Medicare drugs -- belong to both Bush and the Republican majorities on the Hill.
We're stuck with Bush until 2008. The only way to stop the spiral is to end the GOP majorities on the Hill.
