Is Bush Facing Payback From His Own Party?

It’s too early to tell the impact of last night’s press conference by President Bush but there are some ominious rumblings and if you listen closely they’re still whispering “trouble.”

Political events such as major speeches, policy changes, and presidential press conferences usually take a while to “sink in.” But one factor that remains out there is a peception that there have been far happier political days for George Bush.

There are various signposts — and one that political watchers often monitor is what becomes the conventional wisdom via the news magazines. Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, now writes that Bush has lots his political touch. But he’s not only talking about a host of issues and events but Bush’s relations with Republicans in Congress. According to Fineman:

…many members of Congress think the White House has long acted in an imperious and dismissive way toward them. They like to be stroked, and the president has limited patience for that kind of thing. Like most CEOs, he prefers to give orders to loyal subordinates in a clear chain of command. He distrusts independent power, even in his own party.

This doesn’t sit well in Congress. Lots of Republican senators resent the White House. In the House, the Stockholm syndrome applies—they’re more likely to love their captors—but you still can hear some grumbling, and not just from Chris Shays. It may be payback time inside the Republican Party. And that’s not good news for the president.

Indeed, the Democrats have been primed for payback for some time now. Independent voters and centrists who voted for the GOP are, polls say, irked over issues related to the GOP’s move to shore up its Christian Evangelical base and their payback may be handed over in 2006. (Bush took a step at his press conference to distance himself from religious right leader James Dobson.) Will the press conference — with its refined stance on Social Security and the move to take a more conciliatory approach to opponents than social conservatives take — mark the beginning or the end of Bush’s recent political problems?