Recent Bush Victories Smell of Compromise

In May, for example, the president opposed new education benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and an extension of unemployment insurance. But 75 senators -- including almost half of the Republican conference -- voted to include those provisions in the war spending bill, which Bush had vowed to veto if any additional money was included.

Several weeks later, House Democrats made the unemployment extension a separate bill to test GOP support for the measure. It passed by a two-thirds margin, the veto-sustaining level, with 49 Republican votes.

In some cases, Bush has been unwilling to bend even in the face of strong GOP opposition and certain defeat. In May, for example, the House and Senate easily overrode his veto of a $307 billion farm bill, handing Bush perhaps the biggest legislative defeat of his presidency. Similar votes in 2007 saved a water-resources bill from a veto.

The latest example of GOP rebellion on Capitol Hill came last week during a Senate vote on a bill drafted by House Democrats that would offset a freeze in pay cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients. Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in approving the measure with a veto-proof margin. Even two of Bush's staunchest Senate allies -- Texans John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both eyeing potentially difficult statewide races in 2008 and 2010 -- abandoned him and switched sides after an appearance by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who recently underwent surgery.

Bush opposes the plan because it pays for the "doctors' price fix" by slashing as much as $14 billion in payments to fee-for-service insurers that participate in the private Medicare program. He first threatened to veto the Medicare provision on the eve of a June 24 House vote.

After an aggressive push by GOP leaders against the bill, two-thirds of House Republicans joined a unanimous bloc of Democrats to pass it.

Asked days later about Bush's apparently weaker hand on Capitol Hill, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) declined to address the administration's standing on domestic issues. "On the national security and defense issues, the president is still an incredible force," he said.

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the GOP's chief deputy whip, applauded the White House's willingness to oppose otherwise popular measures such as the Medicare bill, but also noted that Bush is "not on the ballot this year."

"People are voting their constituencies," Thune said of the GOP defections. "It's not atypical to what happens in any election year."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto suggested that any perceived shift in Bush's approach to Congress has more to do with the changed political climate than a change in White House strategy.

"I don't think we've become more conciliatory than we've ever been," he said. "We're going to stay on the right side of our principles. If we can get these things done and not compromise those principles, then of course we are open to compromise. We always have been open to that."

He added: "Just because you're leading doesn't mean you get everything you want."