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Bush may be above fray, but partisan battles go on
©New York Times, WASHINGTON -- Ever since the terror strikes of Sept. 11, President Bush, like some latter-day George Washington, has tried to position himself as a man above party, the commander in chief, for whom politics itself is slightly declasse. Bush has forsworn fundraisers and campaigning as he pursues his mission to "rid the world of evil." His once omnipresent political guru, Karl Rove, is nowhere to be seen, strategizing far offstage. And the new standard photo op of this presidency is the stern faces of a war Cabinet. But politics goes on. There are programs to be fought over, and another election is always on the horizon. Partisanship may be a dirty word with an anxious electorate, but life without it is unnatural, even impossible, in Washington. The ideological differences between the two parties remain profound. And so, despite the overwhelming support for the war effort on Capitol Hill, political combat returned with a vengeance last week in the House over whether airport security screeners should be federal employees. Everyone reverted to familiar roles. Conservatives denounced government bureaucracy and accused Democrats of wanting to swell the ranks of organized labor. "It's all about union membership in a union that imposes compulsory dues that fund their campaigns," said Rep. Dick Armey, the majority leader from Texas. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., played the scourge of his party's right wing, said, "Some of the brave firemen and police enforcement people that have died in the World Trade Center were members of a union." And Rep. Dick Gephardt, the House minority leader, called House Republican leaders extremists who had taken campaign money from the airport security companies, "the special interests who did not want to lose their contracts." While the president worked hard, and successfully, behind the scenes to pass the Republican version of the bill, his administration signaled publicly that he would sign any reasonable measure, allowing him to look statesmanlike and to claim victory either way. "He's trying to stay above politics," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., head of his party's re-election effort in the House. Noting Bush's sky-high approval ratings, Davis added: "In a way that's good. A president with strong numbers helps the incumbent party." But it is also a high-wire act. Bush's conservative base is complaining that the president it helped put into office is no longer reliably on its side. And Democrats are predicting that the vote to keep airport security private will prove a costly victory, reinforcing the view that on domestic matters, the Republicans are led by Armey and Rep. Tom DeLay, two hard-line Texas conservatives. "I think Tom DeLay and Dick Armey will make the case for a Democratic House," said Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., who is in charge of her party's House campaigns. Other crisis-era presidents may offer some perspective on Bush's task. Abraham Lincoln also sought to stand above party, campaigning for re-election not as a Republican but as the candidate of the Union Party. Franklin D. Roosevelt dropped the rhetoric of class warfare he had used during the Great Depression and used prominent Republicans in the war effort after Pearl Harbor. Both parties are already trying to figure out how to win the 2002 elections. The Republicans in Congress contend that they will be bolstered by Bush's approval ratings and the public's desire for stability (and hence incumbency) in a crisis. Republicans also say that issues of war and national security, which they said favor them, have displaced the Democrats' issues of education, health care and environmental protection. Democrats counter that history is on their side -- that even popular wartime presidents see their party suffer in off-years. Roosevelt's Democrats took a beating in the off-year election of 1942, 11 months after Pearl Harbor. "There was enormous support for Roosevelt," said Doris Kearns Goodwin, a presidential scholar. "But a long war was dragging on without many victories, and the price of the war was being felt throughout the nation." Similarly, the nation may be mired in an inconclusive war on terror next year, and the economy could still be in trouble. So Democrats plan to stay firmly at Bush's side in support of the war effort, while putting forth their own economic plans, with calls for increased unemployment compensation and more health care. Polls show that despite Bush's popularity, Democrats stand poised to win races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and the mayor's race in New York City on Tuesday. The political landscape may be changing even now in ways that neither party has recognized. David Winston, a Republican pollster, has found that voters are fundamentally rethinking their values. And in what he calls a "bizarre bifurcation never seen before," voters feel optimistic about the direction of the country even as they say that the economy is worsening and that they fear for their personal security. He attributes the optimism to pride in the nation's response to terror, the sacrifices of New York's firefighters and police officers.
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