Bush's Two Sides

  • BROOKS KRAFT/GAMMA FOR TIME

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    The White House swats away such complaints with a disdain that isn't likely to improve relations. "It's crap!" snaps a senior Administration official. Every member of Congress wants special treatment, the official says, and if you deploy the President too often, he wastes his time and loses his power to convert. "You don't get the President involved at the start," says a White House official. "You set the table and insert him at key points in the process to get key things done, to make key calls to certain people [to tell them it's] time to get off the dime, time to hold hands and jump."

    As Bush took Chambliss golfing Friday--a rare Dubya indulgence in that favorite Clinton lobbying tactic--he must have known he was running out of time to pull off what would be a miraculous legislative victory. House G.O.P. vote counters are quite gloomy about his prospects. "When they pulled the vote back this week, it meant Tom [DeLay] couldn't do it," says a House veteran referring to the majority whip's famous ability to cajole. "It means he won't be able to do it next week either." The White House has a different tally. It thinks it will win this week. It has either vastly overestimated Bush's powers of persuasion, or the President is about to exceed expectations one more time.

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