White House, GOP avoid direct confrontation

[March 02, 2009]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Republicans show no desire to demonize President Barack Obama, so they're condemning Democratic leaders instead. Democrats are finished with their favorite target, George W. Bush, so they're linking Republicans to a famous talk show host instead.

Call it deflection politics.

Listen to the No. 2 Republican leader in the House, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. "We want to work with this president," he said Sunday. "We want people to regain their confidence in Washington. And what people are looking for is results."

But what of the $787 billion economic recovery legislation that not a single Republican in the House supported? That, Cantor said, was "Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi's stimulus bill."

Now consider White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. "It's our desire that the Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive, rather than adopt the philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh, who is praying for failure," he said.

Six weeks into Obama's presidency, both sides are trying to divine the terms for public debate. Obama and Republican lawmakers clearly understand two things: The president is popular; raw partisanship is not.

The Republican goal is to separate Obama from his policies and go after congressional Democrats, who fare much more poorly in public approval.

Obama, meanwhile, recognizes that part of his appeal is his outreach to Republicans, even if it's not intended to bear immediate fruit. As a result, the White House and its allies won't be too critical of GOP political leaders. Limbaugh, who has said he hopes Obama fails in his economic policies, makes a more attractive, and convenient, target.

This weekend, a labor-liberal coalition began airing about $100,000 in ads on national cable television and in Washington markets in an effort to handcuff the GOP to Limbaugh, whose provocations don't always follow party script.

"Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican Party -- he says jump and they say how high," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, the liberal advocacy group that is sponsoring the ads with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Limbaugh has refused to back down. Speaking Saturday to a conservative convention in Washington, he said: "What is so strange about being honest and saying, 'I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?'"

The words have made some Republicans flinch. And on Sunday, Cantor seemed eager to change the subject. "Nobody -- no Republican, no Democrat -- wants this president to fail, nor do they want this country to fail or the economy to fail," he said on ABC's "This Week."

But no less a political pugilist than Emanuel drove the Limbaugh-GOP connection home.

"He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party," Emanuel said on CBS' "Face the Nation," bestowing backhanded praise on Limbaugh. "And he has been upfront about what he views, and hasn't stepped back from that, which is he hopes for failure."

Republicans, meanwhile, have drawn careful distinctions between Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party.

"Republicans want to be partners with the president in finding responsible solutions to the challenges facing our nation, but thus far congressional leaders in the president's own party have stood in the way," said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, after Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last week.

And Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, singled out Pelosi for criticism after the House approved the $410 billion spending bill. "It's disappointing that less than 24 hours after President Barack Obama urged Congress to restore fiscal responsibility, Nancy Pelosi's House Democrats passed a spending bill laden with pork," he said.

Eventually, it will become harder for Republicans to continue their hate-the-policy, like-the-policy-maker strategy. Obama's budget left little doubt that he was the Democrat driving the party's ideas. And while Republicans have flattered Obama and his call for fiscal restraint, Obama aides left no doubt he will sign the spending bill and not heed their call for a veto.

"We just need to move on," White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.

At the same time, the White House and its allies will be able to play the Limbaugh gambit only so long. After all, the talk radio master may have a big bullhorn, but it's Republicans such as Cantor and Boehner who are driving the GOP message in the Capitol hallways.

For now, though, Limbaugh and Pelosi will do.

[Associated Press; By JIM KUHNHENN]

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