Posted on 06/24/2006 2:35:10 PM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
For the White House, the Congressional picnic last week seemed like the perfect setting to mend strained relations with Republican allies on Capitol Hill: President Bush and his advisers eating taquitos and Mexican confetti rice on the lawn of the White House with Republican Congressional leaders.
But moments before Mr. Bush was to welcome his guests, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert told the president that House Republicans were effectively sidelining — and in the view of some Congressional aides probably killing — what had become Mr. Bush's signature domestic initiative of the year: an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws.
That disappointing news for Mr. Bush signaled the apparent collapse of a carefully orchestrated White House strategy to push a compromise immigration bill through Congress this summer — and in the process invigorate Mr. Bush's second term with a badly needed domestic victory.
The decision by the House leadership to defy the president after he had put so much prestige on the line — including a rare prime-time Oval Office speech for a domestic initiative — amounted to a clear rebuke of the president on an issue that he has long held dear.
An account of the administration's push for the initiative, based on interviews with members of Congress and senior White House and Congressional officials, shows that Mr. Bush's immigration measure was derailed by an overly optimistic assessment by the White House of the prospects for building a bipartisan coalition in support of the bill. It was also hurt by a fundamental misreading of the depth of hostility to the measure among House Republicans.
It was undone as well, White House and Congressional leaders acknowledged, by a sharp division over whether to focus on the short term or on the party's long-term political prospects.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good news! ... where's the champagne?
That must have been enough to give the President a severe case Mexican heart burn!
I agree... Lorrie Morgan said it best. When Bush and McCain inevitably revive this losing cause in 2007, perhaps we can attach a copy of her song to all those bricks being sent to Capitol Hill.
The Conservative crack down continues! The compromise bill is a disaster
Hopefully that won't change.
(Taquitos and mexican rice.) Hey! Where's the hamburgers and hot dogs?
"We Celebrate Diversity". BARF...
Heh...
Nothing like getting news on Capitol Hill Republicans... through the kommie-kaleidescope lens of the Slimes.
Read my lips - or rather - read my tagline.
Sob. Sob, for Bush and the RINO Senate.
Hopefully this abominable assault on our country will die and stay dead.
It was also hurt by a fundamental misreading of the depth of hostility to the measure among House Republicans.
Actually, it's a "fundamental misreading of the depth of hostility" to illegal immigration among American citizens. But one can't expect the "Newspaper of record" to actually make an attempt to figure out what's going on with this fundamental issue.
Don't that just beat all? It was either a dumb idea or sheer arrogance.
... eating taquitos and Mexican confetti rice on the lawn of the White House.
Hopefully they weren't eating it off of the White House lawn.
This NY Times article is either juvenile, or recylcing Rove's latest framing, which naturally they would accept because they uncritically accepted Hagel-Martinez diverted by conservative baiting by Bush and Rove. They're recycling the "anti-Hispanic" angle and the future of the Republican party blah blah.
No real analysis of the Hagel bill. This is an important point to hit. The House Repubs must specify the tax relief, worker programs, wage depression and amnesty specifically. Rove and the MSM are trying to restructure Bush's and Hagel's radical position as moderate.
""But Mr. Bush was criticized by both sides as not taking a public stand on specifics and permitting conservative members of the House to define the debate.""
This is a laugher. Rove, Bush, etc. with supoort of MSM defined it by day one. The NYTimes was a willing participant, this shows how far they will go to lie and miscast the hisotry.
""Aides said the president was trying to stay above the discussion to remain flexible enough to broker a compromise.""
Bulls---. He came out and supported Hagel-Martinez.
We's got a battle.
Good work by the house GOP. No bill is better than a bad bill. Stand tough with the senate GOP sellouts
""But one can't expect the "Newspaper of record" to actually make an attempt to figure out what's going on with this fundamental issue.""
They're reattempting to make the "fundamental issue" "House Republicans." Here the NYTimes acts as a willing partner to the Rove line. They needed three reporters to repeat this stuff?
No analyis of the money behind this bill? The lobbies? Times is a corporate shill.
I hope Hastert, Sensenbrenner and others go public about what they were told, and how they felt betrayed.
MSM will pounce on any seemingly anti-Hispanic claim.
""The compromise bill is a disaster""
One of the White House memes is that Hagel-Martinez itself is a compromise bill. I think the NYTimes bit on that spin, but it is silly.
They will settle for the line that Bush would "settle" the issue fairly, standing from a position in the middle. Yet he is on record saying we needed more wage suppressing, unemployment creating guest worker programs.
My Congressman's office told me last week that White House pressure seems to have lessened. Good news, if accurate, from my anti illegal alien viewpoint.
Strange...I heard McCain say just the other day that House GOP will pay a price for ignoring the will of the American people on this issue. Where is he getting that from?
I really thought it was a joke until I found out it was true!What on earth were they thinking?
Mr. Hastert do you think Bush got yours and the voters message.
Same place he gets everything else--the voices inside his head.
Sounds about right.
I was thinking the same thing!! George, I suggest a slow smoked bar-b-que on your next picnic with Republicans and some Shiner beer!
They should have ordered pizza and had it delivered!
Uh, can you say both, Boss? Holding to the House bill addresses both.
Strategery strikes again!
Yeah, they will...Herr McCain will drop them from his Kwanza Card list!
"Mr. Bush's signature domestic initiative of the year: an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws."
Should read: Mr. Bush's signature domestic initiative of the year; 'amnesty for illegal aliens.'
Good! WTG House Repubicans!!
Finish the wall/pitch 'em all back over!
Yep! Good thing more and more seem to be in the fightin' mood!
I would be careful. The political enviornment changes rather quickly in Washington. When the House leadership declares CIRA dead officially, then break out the booze.
This news? was news to Bush?
This is as upset as I've seen the casually political among us in my lifetime. Co-workers who thought they were liberal are now big time anti-illegal.
"Strange...I heard McCain say just the other day that House GOP will pay a price for ignoring the will of the American people on this issue."
McCain must have had a senior moment. He meant to say the will of the Senate. Even Frist used that phrase for something a couple of weeks ago. When did the Senate ever give a rat's derrier for "we the people?"
"Finish the wall/pitch 'em all back over!"
How about a catapult just to play it safe?
...AND most importantly the hostility towards illegal alien amnesty by their constituents, the American People!!!
Well, don't want them to get injured, but otherwise, sounds fine with me./ Bttt
(Taquitos and mexican rice.) Hey! Where's the hamburgers and hot dogs?
That's the first thing I thought of, too!
Dumb and arrogant!!
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