What’s the President’s first move going to be? Will this election allow him to charge forward on a radical program for change? Does he have Congress in his pocket?
I’m inclined to say that Bush will push forward one or two pet projects in the next 100 days, but on the whole not much will change. The power of the presidency is much overrated. Maybe I’ll expand on this later, but I’ll just have to add some links to others on this topic right now. Andrew Sullivan.
OK. One quick thought. I’m finding it very amusing that the fiscal conservative, pro-war Republicans are denying that the election was about moral values. The Country Club Republican are distancing themselves from the Bible Belt Republicans. This uneasy alliance within the Republican party could unravel pretty quickly.
(God I shouldn’t be doing this right now, but I just. can’t. help. myself. Blog=Crack. Another quick thought and then I’m really walking away from the computer until tonight. Really.)
There is a huge misconception about how much power the parties have and how much power the president has over fellow Republicans in Congress. This is not England. Parties are very weak in this country and the president is not the head of his party. Individual congressmen are under no obligation to obey the president. Sure, the president has a few carrots and sticks at his disposal to sway a Congressman. But every congressman is primarily motivated by an interest in getting reelected and to do that he must serve his constituency and not make lame-brained comments like “I’m a DC resident” around his South Dakota voters.
And the president certainly can’t remove Specter from his leadership of a committee. Todd Zywicki at the Volokh Conspiracy doesn’t get it. Leadership is determined by seniority.
Apt. 11d 
“The Country Club Republican are distancing themselves from the Bible Belt Republicans. This uneasy alliance within the Republican party could unravel pretty quickly.”
We should be so lucky. But I’m afraid it’s going to take some serious rethinking on the left to get that wedge in there; the disdain of a Brooks or any other red-state poser for actual rural interests isn’t going to be enough, on its own ayway, to get an electorally significant slice of the socially conservative working-class to open their ears and hear what the Democrats could offer.
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He could “remove” Spector by appointing him Attorney General, or Supreme Court Justice. ‘Course, then Pennsylvannia would be likely to end up with a Democratic senator.
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John Thune, newly elected R Senator from South Dakota, said that leadership is thinking about doing away with seniority rules, looking in particular at the Spector’s comments.
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To be fair, they (the Pubs) have been talking about doing away with seniority rules since at least the ’94 fiasco. (So it’s not entirely rank opportunism if they do it).
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