President, Congress Ready to Begin the Next Round

By Michael Abramowitz
Monday, December 3, 2007

Congress will return to Washington this week, bringing with it President Bush's favorite punching bag. Since summer, the Associated Press reports, Bush has focused 17 events on his budget-related disputes with lawmakers, most recently Saturday's radio address, in which he pressed them to complete "unfinished business" before leaving on their Christmas recess.

Bush and congressional Democrats once talked of working together to get big things done, but that sentiment vanished amid trench warfare over the stalemated children's health-care bill, spending bills still on hold and the Hill's unsuccessful efforts to force a new course in Iraq.

Bush is clearly acting as if he has the upper hand in the year-end struggle, showing no sign of compromise on his key demands. They include a "clean" war funding bill (without timetables or restrictions on the troops), a wiretapping bill that exempts telecommunications companies from lawsuits, and no more than $933 billion in domestic spending ($11 billion less than what Democrats now want).

Most observers believe Bush will eventually get what he wants on the war funding and wiretapping bills -- the only question is when. One administration official recalled a favorite aphorism of former House majority leader Richard Armey (R-Tex.) -- "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional" -- in predicting that Democrats will have to fund the war on the president's terms, the sooner the better.

The two main dangers for the White House are the possibility that Democrats can muster the votes to override a presidential veto (they may be closest on children's health) and simple presidential overreach. After allowing big spending bills to go through in his first six years, Bush may appear churlish to stand on principle over relatively modest differences in funding for domestic programs.

"It's symbolism and politics more than substance," said Jim Dyer, a former Republican House Appropriations Committee aide who now lobbies at Clark & Weinstock.

Hot Ticket for Hanukkah

One of the duties of Jeremy Katz, an aide to Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan, is to serve as White House liaison to the Jewish community. This time of year, that means Katz has the responsibility, and the headache, of helping organize the White House Hanukkah party.

The event, although a fairly new phenomenon, has become something of a Washington institution among movers and shakers in the American Jewish community. Bush is the first president, according to Katz and others, to include a Hanukkah party among about two dozen holiday parties at the White House, as well as the first to light a menorah in the Executive Mansion.

About 600 people are expected to crowd into the White House next Monday night for an event that will include the lighting of a menorah, Jewish music and kosher food. The White House has kosherized its kitchen for the event, according to Katz and Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Washington director of American Friends of Lubavitch, who says he has hired rabbis to help make sure religious requirements are being satisfied.

"There are no compromises," Shemtov said. "Everything is prepared and transported under the absolute highest standard of kashrut [kosher regulations]. That way, everybody can eat at this event."

Shemtov and other Jews speak fondly of the party, which the rabbi calls "one of the hottest tickets" in town. In years past, prominent Jewish athletes such as baseball players Shawn Green of the New York Mets and Brad Ausmus of the Houston Astros, Supreme Court justices and even some figures of the opposite political persuasion from the president -- Harvard's Alan Dershowitz, to name one -- have shown up. Some describe a desperate last-minute scramble for tickets.

"It is certainly a challenge" putting together the guest list, Katz said. "I have had to turn down relatives who have made creative pleas to get in."

No Freedom Fries, Though

Is French President Nicolas Sarkozy's newfound coziness with Bush paying off in unexpected ways? Swoop, a well-informed Web site that tracks American foreign policy for foreign readers, reports that French intelligence services are receiving sophisticated anti-riot equipment from their U.S. counterparts -- timely information, given the recent riots in Paris suburbs.

No on-the-record comment from the Bush administration, but one official noted that the countries have cooperated closely on terror and law enforcement issues since long before Sarkozy took office in May.

Close to the Heart?

The president seldom talks in public about his past struggles with liquor, but there seemed to be a touch of the personal in his response Friday to the founder of an AIDS service center in Zambia. During a meeting, she told Bush about how alcohol abuse has plagued some families that use her center.

"That alcohol will get you every time," Bush interjected.

The Great Divide

A humorous interchange unfolded in the Rose Garden on Wednesday, as Bush appeared with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to bless their new peace initiative. Just before Bush spoke, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and other aides made their way to the side to get a view.

Rice was urging Livni and Qureia (also known as Abu Ala) to stand together for a photo, but Barak, a former prime minister, was standing in between the two. "I will always divide them," Barak joked, to chuckles all the way around.

The Presidential Bookshelf

During an interview last week with columnists, Bush offered a rundown of what's on his bookshelf lately, according to Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard. Bush has just finished "The Great Upheaval," Jay Winik's account of the revolutionary period of the late 18th century, and is now reading "A Confederacy of Dunces," the novel by John Kennedy Toole. Bush told the group he plans to turn next to a book about the 1800 presidential election, "A Magnificent Catastrophe," by Edward J. Larson.

Waiting Away in Margaritaville

One more secret successfully kept by a tight-lipped administration: Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, a Bush favorite from Texas, showed up at a Mexican restaurant in Arlington on Thursday night expecting to have dinner with her pal, Rice -- only to be greeted by a surprise 50th birthday party organized by her husband, Robert. Guests had an hour to enjoy margaritas before her arrival, so the shouts of "surprise" were said to be particularly rousing, reports my colleague Peter Baker.