Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush runs, but can't hide, from failures

Capitol Hill Blue: Bush runs, but can't hide, from failures: "With polls showing 57 percent of the American people believe Bush lied to lead this country into war in Iraq, Republican political strategists now tell their candidates to avoid any association with the President and to moderate their views away from the extreme right wing positions of the GOP.

“The President has gone too far and the party has gone too far,” says Harleigh. “Those who return to the center might stand a chance in next year’s midterm elections. Those who stick with the President and the far right do not.”

Even notorious conservatives like Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, are avoiding appearances with Bush. Santorum citied “scheduling conflicts” that kept him from appearing with Bush during the President’s Veterans Day attack on Iraqi war critics but Santorum also told radio talk show jock Don Imus that he does not intend to appear with the President for the time being.

“Santorum needs a degree of separation, to establish independence from the President so voters believe he represents their interests,” says Terry Madonna, political analyst and pollster at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. “Republicans like him have every reason to be concerned and they are.”"

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