Copyright 2002 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.  
Chicago Sun-Times
May 6, 2002 Monday
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 33

LENGTH: 723 words

HEADLINE: Bush, DeLay go own ways

BYLINE: Robert Novak

HIGHLIGHT:
Majority whip worried that president's support for farm bill further alienates GOP base

BODY:
A rift between George W. Bush and House Republican leaders became obvious Thursday when the bloated farm subsidy bill passed. The GOP leaders were appalled by this caricature of government excess, but the president sent a contrary signal: He would sign any farm bill passed by Congress.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans had heard that song before. President Bush had made clear he would sign any education bill, and had indicated he would not veto any campaign finance reform. Nor has the president pledged to disapprove a fat emergency spending bill raising the level for further appropriations.

None of this prompts House Republican leaders to recklessly break with Bush. However, the president is interested in his 2004 election, while the party's House leaders are intent on maintaining control of the chamber for the fifth straight election. They fear Bush is alienating the Republican base, whose support is vital in a mid-term balloting.

"It worries us," Majority Whip Tom DeLay, strongman of the House, conceded to me last week, "and we are going to do something about it." That "something" does not include a foolish attempt to reshape the president's political strategy. Rather, DeLay and his colleagues are recognizing that they will not get much help from Bush and must work on their own to strengthen the GOP's voting base in 2002.

DeLay does not fully agree with conservative wise man William J. Bennett's theory that Bush's efforts at a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian settlement erode the Republican base. Yet, after first pulling back his pro-Israeli resolution at the White House's request, DeLay put it through the House on Thursday when Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle refused to hold back a Senate version.

From the time that Bush was counted the presidential winner in Florida, Democrats have tried to divide him from DeLay. The difference between the two Texans is obvious: The president seeks consensus, the majority whip mobilizes supporters. While they have proved sufficiently savvy politicians to avoid an open break, the quiet rupture over the farm bill showed Bush and DeLay going their own ways.

The final version approved by a Senate-House conference marked an abandonment of efforts to impose market standards on farmers. The Senate's two Republican specialists on agriculture--Richard Lugar and Jesse Helms--did not sign the conference report. In the House, the party's leaders indicated they would vote "no" on final passage. There was speculation that the bill might be defeated.

The president did not want that. When the House convened Thursday, White House aides assembled at all the entrances to the chamber to dissuade dissenters. The leadership did not attempt to influence the outcome, but made their own views unmistakable.

Voting against the measure were DeLay, Majority Leader Dick Armey, Policy Chairman Christopher Cox, Leadership Chairman Rob Portman, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier and Campaign Committee Chairman Tom Davis (with Speaker Dennis Hastert not voting but opposed). Only Conference Chairman J.C. Watts supported the White House and voted yes.

The president's approval of a farm bill violating Republican principles only augments disillusionment within the party base that peaked with his signature on campaign finance reform. When DeLay attended recent local Republican conventions in Texas, he found party activists bitter over what they considered the president's defection.

Still riding a wave of post-Sept. 11 popularity, Bush does not like the veto weapon--even to curb rising government spending. A private meeting between the president and Rep. Bill Young, the Appropriations Committee chairman, was supposed to make clear Bush would veto the pending supplemental bill if it rises above $27 billion. Young came away from the meeting unconvinced.

George W. Bush is no liberal and in some ways is more conservative than Ronald Reagan. But he is combat averse, preferring to sign bills he really does not like rather than fighting it out in the trenches. Tom DeLay likes trench warfare. He blames the disappointing GOP showing in the 1998 mid-term elections on then-Speaker Newt Gingrich's budget capitulation alienating the Republican base. DeLay wants to make sure that doesn't happen again, even if the president is not helping.

LOAD-DATE: May 24, 2002