White House Opens Door To Dissenters

"It remains to be seen whether Paulson will be asked his opinion on this subject or whether he'll offer it," said David D. Doniger, director of climate policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who noted that O'Neill also favored action on global warming. "Certainly in this administration if you had these views, you learned very quickly to keep your mouth shut."

Bolten has also emphasized more consultation with Congress, many of whose leaders have grown bitter. Bush has met with scores of lawmakers from both parties lately and has issued more coveted invitations to White House social events. The White House said it has sent 603 invitations to members of Congress for meetings and ceremonies so far this year.

Yet there are limits. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), the hawkish former Marine who turned against the Iraq war, has been invited to social events, according to his office, but not substantive meetings.

Last month, Bush invited former secretaries of state from both parties -- including Madeleine K. Albright, who has been critical of the war and the administration's conduct of foreign policy -- to advise him on Iraq and Iran. When Albright emerged, she said the discussion had been far livelier than at past gatherings. "We had quite a bit of give and take," she told reporters.

Albright is among those who have been urging Bush to drop his refusal to engage in direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Bush evidently listened, because on Wednesday the administration announced it would talk with Iran along with European negotiators if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment. White House officials consider it a way to call Iran's bluff and convince Russia and China that they tried. But it represented a rare instance of heeding the advice of the Washington elite.

McCaffrey is another Washington veteran who hasn't always found his advice welcomed by the administration. A division commander in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, McCaffrey has been highly critical of the Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's leadership in the current war. But on returning from his latest foray to Iraq, McCaffrey was included among six specialists who briefed Bush for 90 minutes on Tuesday, then was told he was free to speak to the media on the White House driveway. "The president seemed open to views," McCaffrey said in a separate interview afterward.

Deputy national security adviser Michele Davis, who attended, said the McCaffrey invitation reflected an attempt by the White House to put disputes of the past behind it. "We can have differences of opinion about going in [to Iraq] and the way things were handled the last three years," she said. "But we've got to move forward. . . . Differences of opinion about how things went in the past aren't a big deal."

Staff writer Thomas E. Ricks contributed to this report.