No call to war this time -- except on Democrats
January 21, 2004
BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON -- There was nothing like the declaration of hostility against the "axis of evil" as there was two years ago and no call for military action against a specific regime as there was last year. So, President Bush's third State of the Union address was less dramatic and more pedestrian. But its theme was still inextricably tied to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and set the terms for his re-election struggle against the Democrats.
Bush a year ago was making his case for action against Iraq. Now, he not only defended that action but gloried in "leading the cause of freedom." There were certainly no apologies for not finding the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He was feisty and uncompromising. He thus laid down the gauntlet to the Democrats, who sat on their hands for the most part during the speech, taking their cue from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).
In response to Democratic demands for the "internationalization" of Iraq, the president listed the nations belonging to the U.S.-led coalition. Bush evoked sustained applause by ridiculing Democratic complaints that the United States should have sought U.N. approval: "America will not seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."
"The work of building a new Iraq," he said, "is hard, and it is right." He also declared what administration officials have been implying: The use of force in Iraq led Libya to the bargaining table. The first half-hour of the address could be a 2004 campaign document defending the war in Iraq, concluding "the world without Saddam Hussein's regime is a better and safer place."
Speaking in the midst of deepening partisanship in the capital city one year from the next presidential inauguration, the president incurred Democratic anger by belittling Democratic criticism. For days leading up to the annual speech, Democrats grumbled that the Republican-controlled Congress and White House were turning the nonpartisan event into part of the president's re-election campaign. Even the timing came under criticism. Scheduling the event on the night after the Iowa caucuses kicking off the Democratic presidential selection process was criticized as an effort to steal the opposition's thunder.
The sign of that partisanship came early as the president called for renewal of the Patriot Act, giving the government extraordinary enforcement powers to go after terrorists. When he noted that "certain parts" of the act will expire next year, liberal Democrats responded with sarcastic applause. The same kind of derisive Democratic applause greeted his warning that many of his tax cuts are about to expire, as he called once again for the reductions to be made permanent.
However, it was hardly more of a campaign speech than any election year State of the Union, including Bill Clinton's in 1996. The defense of his tax and education bills was political without Bush getting into blatant partisan invective taunting his Democratic opponents.
Bush came into the speech with problems from his own constituency. Orthodox Republicans, in and out of Congress, complained that federal spending under the all-Republican government is out of control. Social conservatives wanted Bush to come out more strongly in favor of a constitutional amendment overruling the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's approval of homosexual marriage.
On the spending issue, Bush hardly satisfied conservatives by calling for a reduction in the increase of discretionary spending to 4 percent. Not until all but nine minutes had passed in a 54-minute speech did he raise the gay marriage issue -- and then ducked. "Our nation must defend the sanctity of marriage," he said. But instead of proposing a constitutional amendment, he called for a debate and left up in the air what course he will take.
The political volatility of social issues was shown when Bush called for sexual abstinence by young people. The Republican side of the aisle was on its feet, applauding and cheering. Only some scattered Democrats joined them. On this as on other questions, Democrats took their cue from Kennedy, who applauded almost nothing.
What most separates Bush from his conservative base is his proposed immigration reform for guest workers. His brief recounting of this proposal was heard mostly in stony silence.
The most daring and dangerous proposal in Bush's address was a renewal of his previously proposed call for private retirement accounts for younger workers in lieu of Social Security. The question remains how hard the president will push this proposal in the re-election campaign and beyond that if there is a second term.
While putting forth more health care provisions built on "private medicine," he stopped short of the basic Medicare reform that conservatives would have applauded.
A manifestation of the partisanship prevailing in Washington came a few hours before the State of the Union address, when the Senate's Democratic minority blocked passage of a massive catchall spending bill completing last year's appropriations. It was all a sham, however, with exactly the same bill set to be passed.
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