Bush Unleashes a ‘Charm Offensive’ on Capitol Hill
The man who campaigned as a Washington outsider came to Capitol Hill on Monday and wasted little time wooing the insiders who have the clout to make or break his presidency.
George W. Bush received a warm welcome from the very same Republican congressional leaders he often kept at arm’s length as he sought the White House. And he met with Democratic leaders mano a mano--a blunt, personal effort to soften up adversaries who had strongly backed Al Gore’s legal challenge to Bush’s victory.
On both sides of the aisle, Bush showed himself skilled at the kind of personal charm and back-slapping bonhomie that lubricates relations in the Capitol--the political war stories, the self-deprecating jokes, the eye-to-eye contact that makes listeners think they are the only ones in the room.
Bush even made a good impression on House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who had never met Bush before and had just one day earlier dodged questions concerning the legitimacy of a Bush administration, given the disputed November results in Florida.
“I was positively impressed,” said Gephardt in an interview after his morning meeting with Bush. “He was genuine and sincere and he was reaching out to us.”
With both Gephardt and Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the president-elect banished staff in favor of one-on-one meetings.
Still, there was a stiff quality in the smiles flashed by Gephardt and Daschle as they appeared at a news conference with Bush and GOP leaders.
“It’s easy to do platitudes on everyone’s part,” said a senior Democratic aide. “But when you get down to how are we going to write a bill, we’ll find out how bipartisan they are.”
For Republicans, Bush’s arrival on Capitol Hill was cause for subdued but heartfelt celebration. Having barely held onto their majorities in Congress and then watched Bush withstand the protracted fight over the Florida results, Republicans welcomed him like an exhausted long-distance runner who barely made it across the finish line.
Many Republicans had gotten to know him during the campaign. But this visit, they noted, was different.
“The last time I dealt with him one-on-one, he was a candidate, he was a guy we joked with,” said Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). “Now there’s an aura. Before he arrives, the security arrives. Then the press, then the staff. It’s an entirely different atmosphere.”
For all his campaign effort to portray himself as a stranger to the ways of Washington, Bush worked his way through rooms full of GOP leaders like an old Capitol hand, according to several of the lawmakers present.
“He knew something about everybody and had a relationship with everybody to some degree,” said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). “He wanted to make people feel comfortable, like he knew them and was connected to them.”
Speaking to Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a conservative activist on public-lands issues, Bush looked him straight in the eye and said: “Craig, I’m going to get you a Westerner running the Department of the Interior.”
With Santorum, he teased the Pennsylvania Republican for being the only Senate GOP leader whose state went for Gore.
In an earlier meeting with House GOP leaders, Bush and Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) joked about going to “charm school” together--they were classmates at candidate-training school when they both ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 1978.
“Time was short but he was eyeball-to-eyeball with each one of us,” said Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio). “He has a great way of looking right at you.”
“In my view, he achieved his goal,” said Rep. Rob Portman (R-Ohio). “Not just to talk about the legislative agenda but to show there is going to be a different style. For all President Clinton’s charms, he never used them effectively in Congress.”
Even Democrats had to admit--if grudgingly--that Bush had a charming way.
“I thought his overtures to me were sincere and heartfelt,” said Daschle. By sending staff from the room, Daschle said, Bush sent the message that “this was not just an office-to-office relationship but a personal relationship.”
But Daschle expressed some doubt about whether Bush understood the depth of partisan mistrust and division on Capitol Hill.
“I don’t know that someone who hasn’t been through the battles of the last couple years can appreciate the depth of feeling.”
Bush, former co-owner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, and Gephardt were able to connect on one level. Gephardt made a point of showing Bush the picture of St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire that he keeps in his office.
Moments later, Gephardt was pressed by a reporter about his reluctance on a Sunday television interview program to acknowledge Bush’s election as legitimate. Pointing to the electoral college vote that would culminate later in the day in making Bush’s victory official, Gephardt said: “I don’t know how you can get more legitimate than that.”
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