Norman Ornstein
Norman Ornstein
Norman J. Ornsteinis a political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington D.C. conservative think tank. He was the co-writerof It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
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It was very significant two years ago when Greenspan endorsed the first Bush tax cut plan. So his basically lukewarm attitude now, saying that some of these ideas are good things in principle, but not at the expense of large deficits, has to weigh heavily on those moderate Republicans.
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Some members are pulling the blanket over their heads and hoping the storm will pass. For others, there is also a genuine belief that if you just jump in a spasm of reaction, you could do some things detrimental to a good deliberative process.
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Having a lot of time left as president is a good thing for him, because it gives him the opportunities and time to get out of some of these holes.
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I'm sure that he's growing a little tired of members taking what he believes are gratuitous personal shots at him,
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To a large degree the durability of this compromise is going to depend on the actions of President Bush. He can keep it or blow it up. It depends on what kind of judges he nominates.
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Everything that surrounded the K Street Project and what flowed from it all of that is under intense pressure.
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Even if the reality is, there's nothing more that he could have done back in Washington or anywhere else ... the symbol matters.
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Even those people in the leadership who've done commendable jobs may find themselves in the cross hairs just because it's possible there will be a more widespread desire for change.
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Congress as a whole needs to step back and look at the way it conducts its business. It's not just lobbyists influencing members of Congress, it's members of Congress shaking down lobbyists for money.
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There's no question that it will hurt him and it will hurt him significantly. He's still getting the solid support from his base. The question now is whether his performance with the hurricane begins to affect his performance with his base.
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It would have gone past us as just one of those moments where each side was teeing off against the other. But that event punctuated things, and I do think it made a difference in the coverage of the hearings.
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This is a major fork in the road for him.
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But, after the terrible lapses that occurred here, they are going to be on the defensive, and the ability to push other things onto the agenda will be limited.
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My understanding is that now, after taking soundings, he's thinking about running for leader.