From Newsday:

Rough patches for Bush team

BY CRAIG GORDON
NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU

March 2, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King has been the face of Republican criticism of the Dubai ports deal, putting him in the rare position of opposing President George W. Bush on a national security issue.

Does that mean the White House has been courting King to get him on board with the deal? Hardly.

King had his first sit-down with top White House legislative staffers only yesterday. He's never heard from political guru Karl Rove or chief of staff Andrew Card on the issue, or Bush himself.

King said yesterday he's not complaining, but he is upset that Bush lashed out at loyal Republicans in Congress who question the deal, all but accusing them of Arab-bashing. "That's one of the worst charges you can make against somebody. They're playing a race card," said King, of Seaford, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who has charged the Bush administration didn't investigate the Dubai firm's possible ties to al-Qaida.

The Republican revolt against Bush has pointed up a pattern of fractured communications and even outright hostility from the White House toward Congress, both in GOP hands, analysts say. The fact that split has come on Bush's signature issue - security - makes it all the more striking.

But the administration's handling of the controversy also raises a larger question among some Republicans: What is going on at the White House?

Those questions seem certain to intensify amid an Associated Press report yesterday that Bush was warned that the worst-case scenario might occur during Hurricane Katrina, yet didn't ask a single question during a key briefing.

Fiercely on message and in control during the first term, Bush's team has stumbled through a series of second-term blunders - like being blindsided by GOP anger over a pending deal to allow a United Arab Emirates company to run terminals at six U.S. seaports, including New York.

From the sluggish Katrina response, to the aborted Supreme Court bid of Harriet Miers, to the recent daylong delay in revealing Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident, Bush at times has seemed off his game.

Now even some high-profile Bush supporters are starting to worry that Bush's recent woes could threaten the Republicans' hold on Congress. "It seems to me that the president runs the risk of being a lame duck before his time," said Paul Weyrich, a top conservative activist who occasionally consults with the White House. After Bush's re-election in 2004, "it just sort of started going downhill," he said.

Senior Bush advisers dismiss talk of a White House in disarray, saying outsiders are exaggerating a few rough patches. But Bush's approval rating hit a new low in a new CBS News poll, just 34 percent, down from 42 percent last month.

Weyrich is hardly alone in noting that the same team that often kept 2004 rival John Kerry on the ropes isn't as crisp these days, or in calling for a White House shake-up.

Bush has had few significant senior-level staff changes, meaning that the same top aides who weathered 9/11, two wars and two presidential campaigns are still on the job - and probably exhausted. "You're going 100 miles an hour for five years and things just aren't as fresh as when you started," said one veteran of the Bush White House.

The indictment of Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury charges in October and the ongoing investigation of Rove also proved a distraction.

House and Senate members up for election this fall also feel greater freedom to split with Bush to protect themselves. And on the Dubai deal, Bush also showed a characteristic streak of stubbornness, launching straight into a veto threat, only to soften his tone later.

The White House now is playing catch-up, working out a weekend deal with top House and Senate officials for a new 45-day review of the ports deal and briefing members of Congress.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.