GOP suffers because Bush is a clueless, AWOL misleader

[ProSense]

Newsview: GOP Malaise Due to Iraq Unease By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Most presidents get a boost from overseas trips. President Bush, though, may return from Asia wondering why he left U.S. soil in the first place.

Caught off guard when South Korea announced plans to pull one-third of its troops from Iraq, the president also could look back on the home front and find things have not exactly been quiet.

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While Bush was away:

In a rare across-the-world exchange of invective, the White House traded daily barbs with its Democratic critics. They accused Bush of manipulating prewar intelligence and deceiving the nation in starting a war he is unable to end.

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When the Senate passed a $50 billion tax bill early Friday, it left out one of Bush's second-term priorities: an extension of tax cuts on dividends and capital gains that are now set to expire after 2008.


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In Bush's first term, GOP leaders prided themselves on their unity and discipline. They are hampered now, for a variety of reasons: Bush's plunge in the polls; an unpopular war; the stepping aside of Rep. Tom DeLay as House majority leader after his indictment in Texas; and a federal investigation of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock transactions.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_uneasy_home_front