Clinton Setback Brings Joy to Bush, GOP Leaders : Politics: While Connecticut also showed Republican discontent with the President, ‘nobody even noticed,’ says one campaign official.

The Germans call it Schadenfreude. And at the White House on Wednesday, there was no mistaking the pleasure being taken in another’s pain.

President Bush mostly beamed. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) nodded with vigor. And other Republicans took public delight at a sudden turn that had left their presumed Democratic presidential opponent embarrassed at the hands of an angry insurgent in Tuesday’s Connecticut primary.

“He’s their flake, but he’s our savior,” House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia said of former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., the primary’s victor.

“I see nothing to be unhappy about,” a grinning Bush said when asked his reaction to Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s unexpected defeat.

In Republican circles--where the mood this election year had been muted by Patrick J. Buchanan’s challenge to Bush’s renomination--the sound heard Wednesday was a crowing over the Democrats’ new disarray.

Bush himself was deserted in the Connecticut primary by one Republican voter in three, a showing that again underscored the extent of discontent within his own party. But a senior campaign official simply chortled when asked about Bush’s less-than-stellar-showing.

“Nobody even noticed,” he said.

The Connecticut returns showed Bush capturing 67% of Republican voters. Buchanan, who has all but put his campaign on hold, won 22%, with 9% going to an uncommitted slate of delegates and 2% to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Some aides conceded that Bush may be burdened by such a nagging protest vote for the rest of the primary season.

Perhaps more worrying for the Bush camp, exit polling found that one in four of Buchanan’s Connecticut supporters said they were likely to vote for Clinton in November, yet another in a series of warning signs that first appeared when the President won less than 55% of the vote in the Feb. 18 New Hampshire primary.

“Nothing Bush has done or said since has yet significantly impacted the people in such a way as to overcome their unhappiness,” said Eddie Mahe, an independent Republican consultant.

Still, the Democratic results were what Republicans most wanted to talk about Wednesday. And as Gingrich and other GOP congressional leaders streamed out of a morning meeting with Bush, they were forthright in their glee.

“I think (national Democratic leaders) had gotten pretty comfortable with Clinton and they thought that they could run with Clinton,” Gingrich told reporters. “And now, they see a genuine outsider running a real insurgency against the Washington power structure.”

Pushing his way to the microphone, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas called the Brown victory “very menacing” for the Democrats, saying it “shows that people are concerned about Clinton.”

Bush campaign officials and other Republicans said they harbored no illusions that Brown might somehow capture his party’s nomination. But they said the rekindling of a Democratic battle that had appeared almost over could provide a much-needed distraction while Bush seeks to rebuild his support.

“It is encouraging that there is a lot of confusion on their side,” said Torie Clarke, Bush’s campaign press secretary. “They’re going to have a rocky road ahead, and that’s nothing but good for us.”