Bush Takes Bolder Line With Rivals

After weeks of struggling to set a bipartisan tone in Washington, President Bush is now straining his relations with congressional Democrats as he pushes them to accept an economic stimulus bill, airline security measure and other legislation with elements they oppose.

Bush devoted much of his radio address Saturday to lavishing praise on a GOP version of an airline security measure that Democrats strongly oppose. He is stepping up pressure on the Senate to follow the House Republicans’ lead and approve a big tax cut to stimulate the economy. And he is leaning on Democratic leaders to bring his energy bill up in the Senate before the end of this year.

As Bush takes a more confrontational stance on those issues, he is departing, at least rhetorically, from his weeks-long effort to build bridges to congressional Democrats--especially in the Senate, where they hold the majority--to maintain bipartisan support for his military strategy abroad. The most vivid image of that outreach came when Bush, after he addressed a joint session of Congress last month, gave a bearhug embrace to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

In the Democrats’ radio response Saturday, Daschle urged Bush and Congress to “rededicate ourselves to that spirit of bipartisanship” in developing an economic stimulus plan. Democrats are afraid that spirit is threatened by the economic stimulus and airline security bills.

Congressional sources said that Bush’s more confrontational tone on those issues is in part a response to pressure from conservative lawmakers who are concerned that he was giving ground too easily to Democrats rather than using the vast political capital at his disposal to get something more to his liking. One such action cited by conservatives is the president’s endorsement of Democratic proposals to stimulate the economy through rebates to lower-income taxpayers.

“Some of our conservatives want to make sure he’s fighting for the stuff he believes in,” said a senior House GOP leadership aide.

Democrats are hoping that Bush’s change in tone is more a political gesture to satisfy his conservative allies than a real shift in his governing strategy.

“I’m hopeful he’s not backing away from working with the bipartisan leadership,” said Kori Bernards, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). “I think, in the realization this war effort is going to take a long time, he’s getting a lot of pressure from the right wing of his party to go back to old ways and use his political capital to push things that might not otherwise get through.”

That underscores a central challenge to Bush’s post-Sept. 11 leadership: He has to balance efforts to satisfy his political base at home against his need to maintain bipartisan support for the U.S. military and diplomatic goals abroad.

The airline security and economic stimulus bills are two of the major initiatives Bush has asked Congress to act on in response to the terrorist attack on the U.S. and the resulting blow to the sagging economy. Congress has already approved, by bipartisan majorities, emergency funding and a bill giving federal authorities new power to track down terrorists.

But the Senate’s airline security bill, passed by a 100-0 margin, contains a provision that would make the people who handle and screen baggage federal employees. That proposal is adamantly opposed by House Republican leaders, who see it as a worrisome expansion of the government work force as well as the ranks of labor unions, which tend to support the Democratic Party.

House GOP leaders have scheduled a vote this week on an alternative that would leave it up to the president to decide whether to federalize baggage screeners.

Sponsors of that measure are concerned that Bush has not been forceful enough in expressing reservations about the idea of federalizing workers. Bush remedied that last week by sending a letter endorsing the House bill, and he used his Saturday radio address to undercut the Senate version.

“The Senate bill mandates that all passenger and baggage screeners be federal workers in all circumstances,” Bush said. “While that bill is well-intended, the best approach will be one that provides flexibility.”

On the economic stimulus bill, Bush put the onus on the Senate on Friday to act on popular tax relief provisions passed by the House. The $100-billion measure includes tax breaks for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment, an acceleration of income tax cuts already enacted and a new round of rebate-like checks for people who did not receive rebates earlier this year.

“The tax relief for new investment in the House stimulus package will go into effect as soon as the bill is signed, if we can get it out of the Senate,” Bush said in a speech to business executives. “New, lower tax rates for consumers and entrepreneurs will show up in paychecks on the first day of the next year . . . if we can get that passed out of the Senate. The tax rebates for low- and moderate-income folks would begin to arrive soon, if we can get it out of the Senate.”

Senate Democrats are pushing to make their economic stimulus package more weighted to spending programs, with billions in aid for unemployed workers, for example, and subsidies for health care.

In his radio address Saturday, Daschle expressed the sentiment of mistrust that each party seems to have about the other: “It is not acceptable for either party merely to dust off pre-Sept. 11 agendas and relabel them as ‘economic stimulus,’ ” Daschle said.

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Times staff writer Edwin Chen contributed to this report.