- Home
- Premium Memberships
- Lottery Results
- Forums
- Predictions
- Lottery Post Videos
- News
- Search Drawings
- Search Lottery Post
- Lottery Systems
- Lottery Charts
- Lottery Wheels
- Worldwide Jackpots
- Quick Picks
- On This Day in History
- Blogs
- Online Games
- Premium Features
- Contact Us
- Whitelist Lottery Post
- Rules
- Lottery Book Store
- Lottery Post Gift Shop
The time is now 10:26 pm
You last visited
April 23, 2024, 8:31 pm
All times shown are
Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)
Bush, Pelosi to Bury the Hatchet
Published:
Updated:
Published: 11/9/06, 11:45 PM EDT
By JENNIFER LOVEN
AP - 11/9/06
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and House Speaker-to-be Nancy
Pelosi, perhaps the biggest loser and winner on Election Day, pledged over
lunch Thursday to bury the hatchet and cooperate. When possible.
At the White House, where Bush had invited Pelosi for lunch, presidential
aides joked that there was no crow on the menu for Bush to eat.
Bush ate a little anyway, and he saluted Pelosi, not only as Tuesday's victor
but as the first woman who will ascend to the position of House speaker,
next in line to the presidency after the vice president.
"The elections are now behind us, and the congresswoman's party won,"
Bush said. "But the challenges still remain. And therefore, we're going to
work together to address those challenges in a constructive way."
Said Pelosi, like Bush all smiles: "We both extended the hand of friendship,
of partnership to solve the problems facing our country."
She was accompanied by Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House's second-ranking
Democrat. Bush was accompanied by a stony-faced Vice President Dick
Cheney.
The president and his guests sat down for a make-nice luncheon of pasta
salad and chocolate in Bush's private dining room off the Oval Office.
Later in the day, Bush telephoned Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to
congratulate him on the Democrats' takeover in the Senate as well. The
switch in power in that chamber became sure Wednesday night, when
enough votes were counted to confirm the defeat of Virginia GOP Sen
George Allen. Reid, likely to be majority leader in the new Congress, was
getting his own meeting with Bush at the White House on Friday.
Meeting reporters in the Oval Office, Pelosi and Bush shook hands for the
cameras. The president and the woman whose party beat his this year
leaned forward in their silk-upholstered seats. They promised cooperation
in a government that, come January, will be divided between a Republican
White House and a Democratic Congress.
Though the two sought to show they were putting the barbs in the past, they
did not ignore the differences that they debated so hotly before the voting.
Pelosi has made clear that House Democrats will move immediately on
their agenda, much of it opposed by Bush, which includes cutting student
loan interest rates, funding embryonic stem cell research, authorizing the
federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare patients
and imposing a national cap on industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
She also has said that the election results mean Democrats not only want –
but expect - Bush to make a change of direction in Iraq .
"I look forward to working in a confidence-building way with the president,
recognizing that we have our differences and we will debate them," Pelosi
said at the president's side. "We've made history. Now we have to make
progress."
For his part, Bush has said that he'll listen to all suggestions on Iraq, except
for those that involve pulling troops out before the mission is complete. He
also says he still wants congressional approval for war-on-terror tools that
Democrats have vigorously questioned.
As Bush's press secretary, Tony Snow, put it, echoing what Bush said a day
earlier, the White House's intention is to cooperate but "don't trim back on
your principles."
Bush and Pelosi have met dozens of times before. But with both just getting
accustomed to new roles with each other, aides to both said it was more of
a tone-setting session than a time for brass-tacks negotiating.
They talked briefly about Iraq, without exploring specific policy changes
They discussed at length the degenerating situation in Sudan's violence-
wracked Darfur region.
Pelosi told reporters later that she suggested targets for initial compromise
that are favorite subjects of the president - increased production of
alternative energy, an immigration policy overhaul and ways to make
American workers more competitive in the global economy.
She said Bush did not raise the issue of getting his warrantless domestic
eavesdropping program approved by lawmakers. But, proclaiming that
"you have to govern from the center," she said agreement with the White
House is possible.
Both have much to lose if they do not find agreement somewhere.
Democrats are getting a chance to control Capitol Hill, and they believe
voters could take that privilege away in two years if they don't use it well.
Bush, meanwhile, will lead with a Congress entirely in the other party's
hands for the first time in his presidency. It could have him reaching back
to his experience as governor of Texas, when he cultivated friendships with
top Democrats in the state Legislature - and to his 2000 campaign promise
to be a "uniter not a divider."
Before Tuesday's election, Bush and his aides were asked repeatedly if they
could work with a Speaker Pelosi, or even whether they were preparing for
such an eventuality. They refused to answer. "That's not going to happen,"
Bush once snapped to an interviewer.
But times have changed and so has the White House's reply. Said White
House counselor Dan Bartlett: "We're definitely going to try."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments
This Blog entry currently has no comments.
Post a Comment
Please Log In
To use this feature you must be logged into your Lottery Post account.
Not a member yet?
If you don't yet have a Lottery Post account, it's simple and free to create one! Just tap the Register button and after a quick process you'll be part of our lottery community.
Register