March 1, 2006

GOP unease spreads
Unlike Chimpy McFlightsuit's approval numbers, tensions between Republican lawmakers and the White House have reached an all-time high, say rethugs on Capitol Hill.

Karl Rove has already said that he intends to use national security as the defining issue for the fall congressional campaigns, just as he did in 2002 and 2004. But with Bush's numbers still falling, the Republicans who will be on the ballot have decided to run! save ourselves! define the security issue in their own way rather than defer to the president's so-called interpretation.

"We simply want to participate and aren't going to be PR flacks when they need us," Rep. Mark Foley, the Florida republican who was "one of President Bush's strongest supporters in Congress," said. "We all have roles. We have oversight. When you can't answer your constituents when they have legitimate questions . . . we can't simply do it on trust."

The release of a new CBS News poll showing Bush's approval rating dropping to 34 percent, a low for him in that survey, sent tremors through Republican circles in Washington. Scott Reed, who managed Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996, called the results "pretty shattering."

Bush shrugged off the poll numbers in an interview yesterday. "If I worried about polls, I would be -- I wouldn't be doing my job," he said before leaving Washington for a trip to India and Pakistan. "And, look, I fully understand that when you do hard things, it creates consternation at times." Dur!

Yet at the White House, aides were decidedly downbeat.

Awwwwww. Tres' bum-mare. That's French for tough shit, asswipes. Mwwwaaaa!

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