Bush tries to win back GOP lawmakers
On Iraq, immigration, and Attorney General Gonzales, some staunch supporters have begun to defect.
from the June 14, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
GOP senators who are straying
GOP opposition to the war in Iraq was led by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska, who in 2006 ranked as the president's No. 1 supporter on key votes.
On budget issues, GOP moderates including Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, typically break ranks with the president over tax cuts and their effect of raising the federal deficit.
A larger coalition of moderates in the House and Senate – 17 Republicans in the Senate and 37 in the House – broke with the White House and voted in favor of lifting limits on federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research. That bill now faces a presidential veto but is well short of the votes needed for an override in the House and one vote short in the Senate.
On Tuesday, Bush made a rare trip to Capitol Hill to meet over lunch with Senate Republicans, and about half the time was spent discussing the president's support of comprehensive immigration reform, legislation that Senate conservatives strongly oppose. In recent floor debate over amendments to that bill, 20 GOP senators voted to strike the section that allows illegal immigrants to legalize their status. Ten of those senators are up for reelection in 2008.
In the run-up to the lunch meeting, GOP Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia called for an emergency spending request to reassure critics that Washington is serious about border security.
"The message from a majority of Georgians is that they have no trust that the United States government will enforce the laws contained in this new legislation and secure the border first," they wrote.
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