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That was one of the big surprises during the caucusing for leadership positions among the parties in December. He wasn't expected to win (heck most didn't know he was in the running). All the talk the next day was about the surprise emergence of Lott back into leadership, esp that no one was speaking about why he was bumped out of leadership (on the surface - his embarrassing comments praising Thurman that implied a wish for segregation never having ended and blaming the 'ills of today' on desegregation; deeper was a noted dissatisfaction in the WH with his leadership - as working to closely with the dem leadership and the wish to have him gone.)
Well today it occurred to me, why. It was easy to predict after the elections that there was going to be a big problem for Congressional repubs who are now more concerned with their own political futures than they are for that of the Wh - and a conflict with the WH, used to getting their way when confronting congress and doing as they please. That the interests within the GOP are NOT the same on the Hill as they are in the WH. A coming Power Struggle within the party was predictable.
What wasn't predictable was how early and quickly the Wh would work to push such power struggles front and center. There are articles throughout the corporate media this weekend about the fissures in the GOP party and particular the problems between the WH and the Congressional GOP... BUT the House leadership is still trying to work as bushco surrogates (and their members are bolting to vote for a number of the initial dem initiatives that Bush is likely to veto) as is McConnell over in the senate. His pleading for support for "the Surge" is most notable in that he stood... alone. Ole Whip Lott didn't chime in.
I would guess that the surprise switch in support for Lott back into the leadership in the GOP Senate leadership team came with whispered promises that he would *not* force kowtowing to an increasingly unpopular WH. That would be important to those coming up for election in 2008 - and a sizable number of those seats up for election are GOP held. I think there were wink wink and nod nods going on behind McConnell's back - because some GOP senators did NOT want to be man-handled to support bushco and into jeopardizing their jobs.
The very arrogance of the WH - and bush's sheer inability to win anyone over is going to become even more apparent in the coming weeks. It started with Wednesday's press conference, it will continue tonight with his 60 Minute interview, and it will continue with his State of the Union Speech. In the past two years or so, every time bush has started to tank, the WH trots out a "bush coming to the media to re-sell his ideas to the public" and every time he flops, and the end result is further deterioration of public support for him, his war, and his overall policies.
Wednesday's press conference continued that trend, and I bet he will do worse tonight, and his SOTU speech will be even worse per public relations. By the end of the month expect more defections on votes in Congress from the GOP. The House Leadership will either fall into disarray and do nothing - or will try to get more media PR and will sound more and more strident to the public (ala 'the public really does side with us - they just aren't hearing our message, if they hear our message they will agree with us' delusions) which will make the numbers of local GOP Representatives tank further.
Yet in the Senate - there will undoubtedly be some defections on votes - but the Leadership will not be unified in backing bush reflexively, because Lott will remain standoffish - and thus give some cover/relief to those GOP senators up for reelection in 2008.
Bush is going to take his administration down in flames. He very well could take the GOP party down in flames. Let's just hope and pray that he doesn't (or hasn't already) taken our nation and our system of government down in flames with him.
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