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Democrats Put the Burden of Iraq on Bush

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 January 2007, 03:00 CST

By JIM KUHNHENN

WASHINGTON - After all the pomp and rhetoric, President Bush wasn't about to budge the new Democratic congressional majority from its two primary pursuits - isolating him on Iraq and seizing control of the nation's domestic agenda.

The bipartisan applause that greeted his appeal for support of "our troops in the field - and those on their way" belied the war anxiety that has settled over the Capitol. Bipartisan opposition to his troop-boosting plan for Iraq was jelling in the Senate on Tuesday even as Bush prepared to make the trek to the Capitol to deliver his State of the Union address.

"While the president continues to ignore the will of the country, Congress will not ignore this president's failed policy," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said in a joint statement following Bush's address.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a former Navy secretary and respected voice on military matters, offered a more understated but equally divergent message from the president's. "I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues in the coming days to offer the president our best thinking on a new military strategy, and on how the Iraqis must deal with their own sectarian violence," he said.

The war, though, was the only issue Democrats were willing to leave in Bush's hands.

On the home front, Democrats want to be the ones who set the course toward goals such as affordable health care, energy independence and correcting climate change, even though the president embraced them Tuesday night with proposed cures of his own.

Amid vows to work cooperatively, Democrats made it clear that they welcomed the president into their policy arena while dismissing many of his initiatives as inadequate or misguided.

"The agenda he laid is one that has broad appeal," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "But the issue is not identifying the problems. The issue is finding solutions, and in that area the president fell short."

For six years, Bush marched into Congress with a to-do list for the Republican majorities that ran the legislative branch. When he demanded tax cuts or a new prescription drug plan, they delivered. And if they didn't deliver, Bush at least commanded the agenda, as he did with his call for individual retirement accounts to supplement Social Security in 2005 and for an overhaul in immigration law last year.

This year, there is no to-do list, merely a wish list.

Democrats control Congress for the first time in his presidency and his approval ratings are in the mid-30s. The last president to deliver a State of the Union speech after losing control of Congress was Bill Clinton in 1995. Clinton tried to regain his relevance by offering to work with Republicans and the effort produced a dramatic change in welfare law.

Clinton, unlike Bush, was only in his first term. And Clinton did not have Iraq.

The incentives for Democrats to work with Bush are "considerably reduced," said Ross Baker, a congressional scholar at Rutgers University. "They just want to get past him."

Still, Bush repeated his call for changes in immigration law, a proposal that has far more support among Democrats than it does among Republicans. And while Democrats shrugged off Bush's plan to combat global warming, some elements in it could win bipartisan support.

Farm state Democrats and Republicans leapt to their feet to endorse Bush's call for nearly quintupling the amount of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 - a potential boon to farmers whose corn and grasses are a resource for ethanol.

Pelosi is aiming for far more comprehensive energy and climate change legislation than Bush proposed, however. She has appointed a select committee to hold hearings and recommend policies with a goal of passing legislation in the House this summer.

"On energy, the president can ride their wave," said Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, a member of the House Republican leadership.

Bush proposed to make health insurance more widely affordable by taxing high-premium, employer-provided health plans while giving a tax deduction to other workers. Democrats argued that could encourage employers to drop health insurance plans or healthy workers to opt out of workplace plans, driving prices higher.

Bush also called on Congress to address the looming financial problems facing Medicare and Social Security, a task made all the more difficult by Bush's failed attempt to create individual retirement accounts two years ago.

Further complicating Bush's chances with Congress is the accelerated 2008 presidential campaign. The field of announced candidates for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations is growing at a brisk pace and features some high-profile senators and some members of the House.

"The presidential calculations for 2008 just contaminate everything," Baker said. "Presidential election years are not good times for Democrats or Republicans to come together and solve problems."

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Jim Kuhnhenn writes on politics for The Associated Press.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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