Throughout the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush invoked the name of Bob Bullock, the late Democratic lieutenant governor of Texas. Bush said his relationship with Bullock represented the spirit of bipartisanship that had ruled Texas during his years as governor. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Bush called the evening "bittersweet" because Bullock, "my great friend," was not there.
I couldn't find any such Bullock references this year by doing a quick keyword search on PresidentBush's reelection website. But there's anotherDemocrat that Bush is calling "my friend" these days:Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia. Miller was at the launchof Democrats for Bush in March and later wrote fellow Democratic Bush supporters that "you have demonstrated true courage and conviction to values and principles over partisanship." And in remarks last month to the Democratic Leadership Council, Miller said Kerry's "extreme positions are totally out of touch with mainstream American values."
There's even talk that Miller might appear at theRepublican convention, although Miller told The Hill he wasn't sure; he added that he wasn't planning to go to the Democratic convention in Boston. (It might be hard for Miller to stay away from New York, however. As former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott told TheHill, "He'd certainly get a hero's welcome.")
But there are several problems for Bush in trying tomake a similar bipartisan argument this year to theone he made in 2000. First of all, Miller isn't aleader among Democrats in Congress, as Bullock was inTexas. (And Bush had little choice but to work withBullock, given the weak nature of the Texasgovernorship.) The idea of Bush working hand-in-handwith House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi or SenateMinority Leader Tom Daschle and praising them islaughable; he's tried to cut Democrats out of thegoverning process, while Vice President Dick Cheney raisedmoney in March for Daschle's Senate opponent in SouthDakota, John Thune. Miller is the outlier among SenateDemocrats: He favors even more tax cuts and isopposing Senate colleague John Kerry's presidentialcampaign.
Second of all, Bush's words of bipartisanship have been justthat: words. He hasn't followed them through withaction. Sure, he talked a good game when he first gotto town, working with Sen. Ted Kennedy to pushthrough the No Child Left Behind bill -- only to cutits funding later. Bush's promise during hisconvention speech to "change the tone of Washingtonto one of civility and respect" is simply pathetic;it was his political advisers who helped oust Vietnam veteran and triple-amputee Max Cleland from the Senate byquestioning his courage. (Of course, Bush's conventionspeech was the same one in which he said, "Ageneration shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessonsof Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, thecause must be just, the goal must be clear, and thevictory must be overwhelming." So you can judge foryourself how much of it was campaign rhetoric.)
Third, Bush has lost support from many members of hisown party, so he might want to reach out to them first.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, arguably the party's mostpopular figure at the moment, isn't tying himself too closelyto Bush, according to The Los Angeles Times. A CBSNews poll last month showed that Bush's approval among Republicans, while still high at 84 percent, had dropped 7 percent from April; his overall approval rating was just 41 percent. Bush has been disrespectful of his party's members of Congress, too, misleading them on the cost of the prescription drug bill and bypassing them to make judicial appointments.
Of course, none of this will stop Bush from making theargument that he's just a nice guy who wants to workwith everybody to get things done. But it was formerPresident Ronald Reagan's death that makes this sortof statement from Bush ring so hollow. SeveralDemocrats acknowledged that while they disagreed withReagan's policies, at least he was willing to meetwith them and hear them out. That's not true of thispresident.
There's no doubt that Bush will continue to invokeMiller's name this fall. The Georgia senator hasnothing to lose by it; the southern conservativeis retiring from public office in January. Voters,however, do have a lot at stake; they simply can'tafford to be tricked again. We can be forgiven forbelieving Bush in 2000, as few of us knew what Bushwould really be like as president. But as the oldsaying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool metwice, shame on me." After four years of judging Bushon his record of partisanship, disrespect, andincivility, one Democrat's words do not bipartisanshipmake.
Mary Lynn F. Jones is online editor of The Hill. Her column on Capitol Hill politics runs each week in the online edition of The American Prospect.
