Setbacks pin 'lame duck' label on Bush

[emad]

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
29 May 2005


Weary Republican senators and congressmen headed home this weekend for the Memorial Day recess, with the John Bolton nomination battle still undecided and one tantalising question on their minds: is the heyday of the party's Christian conservative right now over?

Despite the successful mini-filibuster mounted by Democrats late last week, President Bush's little-loved choice to be the next US envoy to the United Nations will almost certainly be confirmed after Congress returns next week. But the bitter three-month battle, which has seen several moderate Republicans openly voice grave doubts about Mr Bolton, is one more sign of how on Capitol Hill, the right no longer has matters all its own way.

The clearest was last week's compromise, agreed by the "Gang of 14" moderate and independent-minded Republican and Democratic senators, to avoid a deva- stating showdown on judicial nominations that might have brought the august upper chamber to a standstill, all but paralysing government. The judicial truce may not last long. The deal, to prevent both Democratic filibusters and the Republican "nuclear option" to bar such delaying tactics, thus far applies only to a handful of federal judges. The stakes will be far higher when Mr Bush moves to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court - as he will have to this summer if, as expected, William Rehnquist, the 80-year-old Chief Justice who is suffering from cancer, resigns.

Suddenly, however, only seven months after his clear re-election victory, the writ of this most dependably conservative President no longer runs as it did. Mr Bush's plan to part-privatise social security, intended as the flagship reform of his second term, is virtually dead in the water. His approval rating, according in one poll, has slumped to a new low of 43 per cent. The dread term "lame duck" is already to be heard. Thanks to assertiveness by Republican moderates, the House of Representatives last week defied Mr Bush by voting to broaden stem cell research to unused embryos created by in vitro fertilisation. Almost certainly the President will be able to use his first-ever veto to quash the measure, should the Senate also approve it, but the point was made.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=642321

[Merlot]

1. I hope he does veto stem cell research

It might open the eyes of the moderate repubs. Seems to me public support and sympathy is on the side of stem cell research.

[TahitiNut]

2. The "d" and the "f" are close on the keybaord. Understandable typo.

:shrug:

[intheozone]

7. Your right , I'm sure the writer meant

"lame fuck", that is/would be much more accurate!!

:evilgrin:



edit: fix typo, no not the d for f one.

[MaineDem]

3. If it looks like a duck...

Of course he's a lame duck. By definition. Now he's just proving it.

[acmejack]

4. Everyone knows somebody who could benefit

Or is, at a minimum given reason to hope for a cure. Illness is totally non-discriminatory.

[MichiganVote]

5. He's a dead duck and an asshole

[leftchick]

6. what a contrast from this AP tripe...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050529/ap_on_go_pr_wh/world_leader_blues;_ylt=AntrdhLMi0j2Oxpz4JuxB9us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2bW85OXIzBHNlYwNwbA--

Newsview: Bush's Global Clout Seen Growing


<snip>

Nearly all his fellow leaders of the world's big industrial democracies have stumbled. It has left them vulnerable at home and weakener on the world stage.

The president, through it all, is riding what he sees as a strong re-election mandate to trumpet his goal of spreading democracy.

That helps explains why Bush, despite a slip in his approval rating among Americans, may find himself holding the stronger hand when he travels in early July to Scotland for the annual summit of the leaders of the eight major industrialized democracies.

"His counterparts all face ill political winds that make their domestic positions rather precarious," said Charles Kupchan, director of European studies with the Council on Foreign Relations, a private research group. "I do think it puts Bush in an advantageous position."

:puke:

[stopbush]

8. Vote in my poll on this subject!

Here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1809093