Friday, July 06, 2007
Opinion
07/08/07 LEFT/RIGHT: He's done
He’s done
By Eric Von Haessler
The overwhelming defeat of the
immigration bill backed by the president may have been a good or bad
thing, depending on where you sit on the question of border c...
President George W. Bush (right) waves as his father, former President George H.W. Bush, drives the family's boat after fishing off Kennebunkport, Maine on June 29.
CREDIT: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images |
He’s done
By Eric Von Haessler
The overwhelming defeat
of the immigration bill backed by the president may have been a good or bad thing, depending on where you sit on the question of border control. Without this legislation, the nation sticks with the status quo, but the fallout of the vote has a consequence that goes far beyond the shouting match of immigration. The most lasting effect of the U.S. Senate’s un-voted-upon border bill is that it marks the unofficial end of the Bush presidency.
A second-term presidency is only relevant so long as it demonstrates that it has juice and can get things done. The worst thing for a sitting president isn’t to be unpopular with the people—it’s not to be feared by legislators of his own party.
When members of a president’s own party make the calculation that he can no longer punish them for breaking away on a big vote, we enter the world of the lame-duck presidency. The day the immigration bill was defeated was the day Republican legislators and conservative talk-radio hosts threw their president under the bus. And there he will remain for the rest of his calendar presidency. Stick a fork in him. He’s done.
The blame belongs to the president and his idiotic staff for allowing this to happen. The tin ear of the White House to the mood of the country that exists just beyond Pennsylvania Avenue grows ever larger and tinnier by the day. A Capitol Hill rookie knows
you don’t send the Prez to visit the Senate
to lobby for legislation unless you already know you have the votes in the bag before you get in the limo. And yet there he was, some number of days before the vote on
the Hill, smiling and shaking hands with the very senators that would drive the final nail into the coffin of his administration.
One has to wonder what inner-circle genius decided to stake the presidency on an issue that causes great stress and debate within the Republican party. Immigration is an issue best settled by candidates who are elected to do something about it. This president cannot seem to grasp the concept that his reign will be judged by the outcome of the war in Iraq and nothing else. This mad scramble to become popular again by attaching his name to bipartisan domestic policy efforts was misguided and doomed to fail from the start.
Even the “geniuses” in this administration now know that they have effectively lost their ability to rule at home. If history serves as a guide, we can look forward to a very international and foreign policy-oriented administration for the duration of the Bush presidency. When a president loses his juice
at home, the only power he has left is on the world stage.
Mark my words, Bush will make more foreign trips between now and January 2009 than in any comparable period since his first inauguration. The thinking on the part of his staff will be that his legacy will only be boosted by a major peace deal or global-warming deal or some other such nonsense. And again his staff will steer him wrong.
George W. Bush as lame-duck president needs to hunker down and think almost exclusively about Iraq until the official end
of his administration. He still has a little more than a year to get it right, and every waking moment in that time period should be devoted to an outcome that Americans are satisfied with. This is his legacy, whether he likes it or not. All big domestic issues should be punted on to the next occupant
of the Oval Office, while he and his foreign-policy folks work on fixing a broken war. But don’t count on the gang that couldn’t shoot straight to be the ones to figure that out. Bush is more likely to continue just stumbling around until his presidency comes to a merciful end.
The sinking of the immigration bill
and subsequent neutering of the Bush administration should be cause for a real and satisfying celebration by those who
hate the president. And to think it was all made possible by the Republicans in the cabinet and Senate. America’s a funny, funny place. SP
More of Eric Von Haessler’s musings can be found on myspace.com/madpundit.