Jewish World Review Feb. 1, 2002 / 19 Shevat, 5762

Jules Witcover

Jules Witcover
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Bush keeps Dems on ropes

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- A MEASURE of the political effectiveness of President Bush's State of the Union address the other night was the way in which the Democratic response by House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt sounded for the most part like an echo of it.

Such opposition-party retorts to a president's report on the condition of the nation customarily are strong and sometimes hostile challenges to the rosy claims made. But judging from Gephardt's generally approving words, listeners might well have concluded that the end to the bipartisanship on domestic matters for which Bush pleaded was just around the corner.

On pursuit of the war on terrorism, Gephardt indeed bought into that proposition in observing that there were two parties in Congress "but one resolve." That was no surprise. His remarks on domestic affairs, however, where the Democrats differ sharply with the Republican president, were so muted as to suggest there is similar unity, which clearly is not the case.

Bush deserves credit for creating that appearance by the way his domestic agenda was couched in generalizations about the need for jobless benefits, improved health care, a patients' bill of rights, saving Social Security and Medicare with prescription drug benefits.

The devil in all these issues, though, is in the details, and that's where the two parties part company. In the time allotted to Gephardt, he could only hint at the deep differences that will invite sharp conflict on the domestic agenda in the year ahead.

Bush, in attempting to defuse the Democratic assault on the Enron scandal, called on Congress to "enact new safeguards for 401(k) and pension plans." He proposed "stricter accounting standards" and making corporate America "more accountable to employees and shareholders" - without, to be sure, mentioning Enron by name.

This was the one most partisan aspect of Gephardt's response, and even then it was with rhetorical restraint. His call for protecting employee pensions "from corporate mismanagement and abuse" sounded little different from Bush's own words, and his only mention of the energy giant by name came in touting a system of pension benefits "that follows a worker from job to job through life and protects employees from the next Enron."

Gephardt attempted to use the Enron scandal to put Bush on the spot on campaign finance reform, soon to have a critical test in the House. "If the nation's largest bankruptcy coupled with a clear example of paid political influence isn't a prime case for reform," he declared, "I don't know what is."

The Democratic leader warned that "the forces aligned against this are powerful. So if you've never called or written your member of Congress, now is the time." Knowing that Bush has not said he will sign the reform legislation, Gephardt added: "I hope the president will stand with us to clean up the political system and get big money out of politics." Notably, however, he made no mention of Bush's own receipt of a bundle of that big money from Enron as a candidate in 2000, when Democrats also were among the recipients.

Gephardt was muted in other responses as well. He said American values "call for tax cuts that promote growth and prosperity for all Americans," rather than taking the customary Democratic potshot at Bush's huge tax cut of last year mostly benefiting the well-off.

He only alluded to the Democratic differences on elderly retirement benefits in observing that "our values call for protecting Social Security, and not gambling it away on the stock market" - a mild dig at the GOP proposal for private investment accounts.

All in all, the Bush State of the Union speech was such an extremely effective piece of co-opting the positions of the opposition party that the old master of the art, Bill Clinton, might have been envious.

If you were a referee at ringside, you would have to give the decision to Bush, who rope-a-doped his way over 15 rounds by not permitting the Democratic opposition to lay a glove on him.

But his call on Congress "to join me on these important domestic issues in the same spirit of cooperation we have applied in our war against terrorism" is no doubt too much to ask.


Comment on JWR contributor Jules Witcover's column by clicking here.

01/30/02: White House task force secrecy
01/25/02: A politically poisonous congressional session
01/23/02: Whither AlGore?
01/21/02: In search of … Tom Ridge
01/18/02: Kennedy takes on the tax fight
01/16/02: On the departure of high government officials
01/11/02: The lobbyist as party chairman
01/07/02: Torricelli's clean bill of health
12/12/01: The elevated vice presidency
12/07/01: September 11th and December 7th
12/05/01: Another children's crusade
12/03/01: Stall on campaign finance reform
11/30/01: Stall on campaign finance reform
11/28/01: More Justice Department folly
11/26/01: Ashcroft still under fire
11/21/01: Normalcy vs. security at the White House
11/12/01: Bush's latest pep talk
11/07/01: The blame game on airport security
11/05/01: Bellwether gubernatorial elections?
11/02/01: Feingold's complaint
10/31/01: Putting the cart before the horse?
10/29/01: Show business on economic stimulus
10/26/01: No political business as usual
10/24/01: Senatorial bravado
10/22/01: Split decision on gun rights
10/16/01: New York mayor's race: What kind of experience?
10/15/01: New York: Making a comeback
10/11/01: Giuliani: Fly in the election ointment
10/08/01: One or two New Yorks?
10/05/01: Providing your own security
10/01/01: Getting back to 'normal'
09/28/01: Muzzling the Voice Of America
09/26/01: Bush's transformation
09/24/01: Using a tragedy for a federal bailout
09/21/01: A view of tragedy at home from abroad
09/14/01: Script for AlGore's coming-out party
08/31/01: Scandal and privacy in politics
08/24/01: On replacing Helms
08/22/01: Politics takes a summer holiday
08/15/01: The resurfacing of AlGore
08/13/01: You can go home again
08/10/01: Governors' Conference drought
08/08/01: Governors defend their turf
08/06/01: New Bush muscle with congress
08/03/01: America's benign neglect
07/30/01: Where is the fear factor?
07/26/01: Dubya, Nancy Reagan and the Pope
07/23/01: Bush's congressional dilemma
07/19/01: Katharine Graham, giant
07/11/01: Finessing election reform
07/09/01: Listening to, and watching, Ashcroft
07/06/01: New comedian in the House (of Representatives)
06/27/01: Spinning Campaign Finance Reform's latest 'headway'
06/25/01: When Dubya says 'the check is in the mail,' you can believe him
06/22/01: The push on patients' rights
06/20/01: If you can't trust historians, how can you trust history?
06/18/01: World Refugee Day
06/13/01: Remembering 'Hubert'
06/11/01: Ventura faces government shutdown
06/06/01: McCain doth protest too much
06/04/01: Memo to the Bush daughters
05/30/01: Missing in action: Democratic outrage
05/30/01: Honoring World War II vets
05/23/01: Lauding the Nixon pardon
05/21/01: Messin' with McCain
05/18/01: A great movie plot
05/16/01: The level of public sensibility these days
05/14/01: "I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States"

© 2001, TMS