[In Bush's case,] the change is more in aesthetics and less in substance, ... Perhaps [Bush] accepts a larger role for government than some conservatives, but that has been a transformation within conservative circles as well. |
Blunt is an insider. He is soft-spoken, but a hardcore right-winger who has very close relations with the business community and ideological conservatives. He's not as much of a lightning rod as DeLay. |
Boehner should not start putting pictures on the wall and hanging drapes. This could be a very temporary job if the Republicans lose in November. |
Clearly, they have to make gains in 2006, or it's possible there will be a contest. |
Congress has become a playground sandbox with no adult supervision. |
Conservatives have woken from a slumber and realized the government has grown exponentially. McCain has been an often-lonely voice calling for a brake on government spending and more fiscal sobriety. |
Even a sitting president who has a vice president running for office doesn't have a great impact on the way the administration behaves. The goal of the next three years is to repair the president's popularity and resolve the situation in Iraq to some decent outcome. ... If Bush leaves office in January 2009 with Iraq in chaos, nothing else will matter. |
He could then say with some credibility that progress is being made and paint the Democrats as the party of defeat. |
He seems to have a more reality-based approach to Iraq. What has been notable about the president's speeches in the last couple of weeks is that they implicitly acknowledge that there have been problems and that he has established a course correction. |
He's lowered the gap between the Democrats and Republicans on defense. It may very well be an ephemeral victory, but the Democrats will take it. Chuck gave them an issue - Dubai - that they're going to bring up over and over again. |
If Fitzgerald comes down with something that strikes the White House, all bets are off with conservatism. It's the post-Bush era. |
It's a unique Washington story. Usually you rise, you fall and then you become a lucrative lobbyist. Here's a case where he rose, he fell and he stuck it out in the institution. |
It's almost as if Democrats forgot how to be successful on these issues and are trying to relearn some of the approaches Bill Clinton took in 1992 that were so successful. |
It's almost like Bush is running for reelection with peace and prosperity. |
It's Democrats being more on the offensive rather than the defensive when it comes to values issues. |