jrtom

red_frog pointed me at this Washington Post article, which laid out some of Bush's priorities and attitudes for his new term.

Her comments focused on Social Security. But what I find personally more chilling is the idea that Bush is making it pretty clear that he thinks he doesn't have to care what anyone thinks any more:

Bush made no effort to hide his high spirits, teasing reporters and calling on them by last name only, in the fashion of a football coach. He has always chafed at reporters' tendency to ask follow-ups and to string multiple questions into one, and yesterday he announced that he will no longer permit it. "Now that I've got the will of the people at my back, I'm going to start enforcing the one-question rule," he said.

...one key adviser said the White House has calculated there is little to be gained from courting Democrats, since the expected fights over Supreme Court nominations would just undo the goodwill.

"This isn't a guy who pivots," said a presidential adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity so White House officials will continue to talk candidly to him. "There's no point in a lot of outreach in the next 90 days that would be rendered moot by the first retirement from the court, and he's not going to do it."

There it is, folks. He thinks he's got a crown and scepter.

You know where our hopes are now? The moderate Republicans. They're basically the only ones that have the ability to derail the more egregious initiatives that he wants to put through Congress. Fortunately, some of them have already--in a presidential election year!--indicated just how much they think that Bush's policies are misguided. (Perhaps, if we're lucky, we'll actually see a definable split in the Republican Party, although I don't really expect it to result in the formation of a new party.)