Troubles mount in White House, Bush agenda bogged down

[struggle4progress]

BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS, JAMES KUHNHENN AND STEVEN THOMMA
Knight Ridder Newspapers

<snip> Three months into his second term .. Bush's bold agenda is bogged down by .. skepticism about .. his proposals, growing resistance from Democrats, dissension within his party's ranks and .. second-term hubris.

With gas prices near record highs and stock markets jittery, Bush's drive for privatized Social Security accounts has been met by .. skepticism. His judicial nominees are stalled, his choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is stuck in committee, and his job-approval rating recently dropped to 45 percent, the lowest of his presidency and well below that of other recent second-term presidents.

Recent surveys have found a disconnect between most Americans' mainly economic priorities and the White House's and the Republican Congress' preoccupation with issues ranging from Terri Schiavo to plans to kill the filibuster. <snip>

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll earlier this month found that 48 percent of Republicans surveyed thought that reinserting Schiavo's tube was the wrong thing to do while 39 percent said it was right. Moreover, 18 percent of Republican respondents said they lost respect for Bush on the Schiavo issue, and 41 percent lost respect for Congress. <snip>

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/politics/11465657.htm



"The average American sitting out there in the country is still very skittish about jobs, health care costs, gas prices," said Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup poll. "Overall, right now, Bush is down on anything we put in front of them. It's kind of like the American public is generally more depressed."

[Fridays Child]

1. Must be about time for another major terrorist attack on American soil.

Wasn't * bogging down right about now, in his first term?

[struggle4progress]

3. Yes, indeed. But could the Republicans survive a second attack?

[Raster]

5. No. They could not. And even more powerful would be the undeniable...

...realization that leaders of their party probably had a hand in the latest terrorist attack. They might even end their denial and realize that certain members of their party leadership CLEARLY played a nefarious role in 9/11. Even if that role was nothing more than stupidity. That's why, no matter if the entire country voted for Kerry, bushco* had to stay in power. What would Americans think and do if all of the CONFIRMED evidence surfaced that proved complicity in 9/11.

[Tux]

2. Lame duck

Now, all we have to do is get DeLay out of office and shut up Frist and Sciala.

[RC]

6. Why does everyone keep forgetting about Rove?

[patrice]

4. What a freaking shell-game Privitization/Personal Accounts

didn't even do anything for the Soc Sec problem that was said to justify this gamble, for the privilege of putting your own money into the market, for only a few choices of investments that are picked for you. And then you pay them back for the reduction in your payroll tax out of Soc Sec into the market with tax money you didn't pay the govt from the wages of your life. They give you a "tax break" with your own money, which you then pay them back later, whether you make more than 3% or not, and pay interest on the loan of your own tax $s of your own money . . . . I'm just trying to say it made no sense what so ever!