On Signing Statements, McCain Says 'Never,' Obama and Clinton 'Sometimes'

"It will be a place where scholars and fellows and researchers come to discuss a wide range of views," Evans said.

'Pell for Kids' Plan Gets Cautious Support

At least one Democrat appeared to be listening closely last month when Bush went through his final-year agenda, including a plan to provide $300 million in scholarships for poor children to attend private or parochial schools. During his State of the Union address, Bush called it "Pell Grants for Kids," adopting the name of the popular program for college aid rather than the more politically problematic term "vouchers."

Last week, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) announced he would introduce a bill in the next several weeks that would give such grants to kids in failing schools -- but only to attend charter schools, independently operated schools that are part of the public school system.

Emanuel is known as a fierce partisan on Capitol Hill, having helped lead the way to the Democratic takeover in 2006, but he has also looked for ways to work with the White House. He has tried to bond with White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten, attending a Nationals baseball game with him last year, and spent the day with Bush recently when the president visited Emanuel's home town, Chicago. Given the antipathy many Democrats have to vouchers, Emanuel described his plan as a way of trying to split the difference with the administration.

"I didn't think much of his State of the Union, but that was one idea worth looking at," Emanuel said last week, describing himself as a big proponent of charter schools. "If they want to do it for private schools, they need to find someone else. But if the president wants it, he can have a success."

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Emanuel's idea shares characteristics with Bush's plan and said he deserves credit for trying to expand educational opportunity through charter schools. But, said Stanzel, "it's not fair to concede that a low-income child has a right to a better education and then severely limit the available options."

A Danish Double

The prime minister of tiny Denmark has received an honor reserved by Bush for only six other world leaders: an invitation to both Camp David and the presidential ranch in Crawford, Tex.

In 2006, Anders Fogh Rasmussen went biking with Bush at Camp David. This weekend, he will spend the night at the Bush ranch in Texas and almost certainly use the bike trails Bush and his staff have built over the past several years.

Britain's Tony Blair, Spain's Jose Maria Aznar and Japan's Junichiro Koizumi have long departed the world stage, leaving Rasmussen as one of the long-standing Bush favorites still in office. The brainy economist who leads a conservative government has backed Bush on Iraq and Afghanistan -- and seemingly paid no political price, winning reelection handily last November.