Columnist: GOP sees 'doom and gloom' as Bush's term comes to an end

Michael RostonPublished: Monday May 14, 2007
As President George W. Bush's term comes to an end, a columnist for a leading business news service wrote on Monday, Republicans see "doom and gloom."
"While the other major democracies have, or are about to have, new leaders, America is mired in a rudderless status quo," writes Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, who hosts the weekend news program Political Capital. "A new embarrassment or scandal – Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove – seems to surface daily; the only good news for the White House is that occasionally these stories overshadow the bad news coming out of Iraq."
As a consequence, Hunt writes, negativity exists among Republican leaders about the party's current state.
"Private conversations with Republicans throughout America reveal doom and gloom about a politically paralyzed presidency and party," he notes. "Almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance; that is Richard Nixon territory."
Hunt also sees paralysis looming in Bush's efforts to set national policy for one large reason – the Iraq War.
"While the president can veto most initiatives of congressional Democrats, his once-ambitious second-term dreams of overhauling Social Security and the tax system and dealing with America's health-care crisis have evaporated," he argues. "Accordingly, Bush will probably spend much of the next year and a half sparring with critics, including a growing number in his own party, over an Iraq war policy that few believe will succeed."
The full Bloomberg News column can be read at this link.