Word: reformer
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...boast of "hiving off" chunks of Democrats into their camp. What Rove is looking for is something Bush did not get in the last election: a mandate. They are already laying plans for the ambitious things they want to do in a second term--Social Security overhaul, tax reform, Medicare restructuring and even more tax cuts...
Medicare could turn out to be his--and the President's--grand domestic prize going into the election. The proposal before Congress would reform the program in myriad ways, most notably by giving seniors their first prescription-drug benefit. Democrats, who also know that a Bush victory on prescription drugs would be politically devastating, are scrambling to stop the $400 billion measure. More important, Democrats oppose the bill's embrace of private-style health care, its failure to rein in pharmaceutical companies and its generous subsidies for HMOs. The House narrowly passed the controversial measure early Saturday morning...
...that wrote the bill, not an unheard-of maneuver against a Senator of lesser rank but a brassy one to be pulling on the chamber's top Democrat. Instead Frist handpicked the Democratic Senators he would negotiate with: Louisiana's John Breaux, who worked with him on a Medicare-reform panel and who shares his views; and Montana's Max Baucus, who was just as eager to cut a deal...
...farther down Pennsylvania Avenue, at the White House, the President sees Fristy--his nickname for the doctor--as not just an ally in the Senate but also a key player in his 2004 campaign. "It's a lot easier running for re-election after having passed a major Medicare reform," a presidential adviser says. The President, who never warmed to the independent-minded Lott, began his alliance with Frist during the 2000 campaign, when Bush tapped him to be a liaison to the Senate. Since then, Frist has cultivated the President too and hunted with Dick Cheney and top adviser...
...saying the Democrats blocked Homeland Security because they wanted labor-protection provisions in the bill). The same is true, to a lesser extent, of the energy bill, which Senators of both parties managed to stop, perhaps temporarily, last Friday. The President can still say, "We proposed energy 'reform'; the Dems opposed." Not many Americans will scour the fine print. As for gay marriage, my guess is that Bush will remain above the fray. The issue is too raw--and his Vice President has taken the same position as most Democrats have. But Bush will benefit nonetheless from the anguish...