Bush Continues to Make Advances on His Agenda

NYT reports His problems remain many, and include the relentless violence in Iraq,

and the MSM that refuses to report the good things

the leak investigation that has ensnared some of his top aides

and which the MSM continues to hype

and poll numbers that suggest substantial dissatisfaction with both his foreign and domestic policies.

or rather which shows how the MSM has misled many.

But President Bush has still had a pretty good July, showing how his own doggedness and a Republican majority in Congress have consistently allowed him to push his agenda forward even when the political winds are in his face. In a flurry of last-minute action as it prepared to recess, Congress on Thursday passed or stood at the brink of final action on several hard-fought measures that had been at the top of Mr. Bush's summer to-do list and that at times had seemed to be long shots. The House narrowly approved a new trade deal with Central American nations early on Thursday morning, the final hurdle for a pact that was one of the administration's top economic priorities this year. The House and Senate were wrapping up work Thursday on an energy bill that more or less conforms to what Mr. Bush has sought. And the two chambers were moving toward final passage of a transportation bill that contained enough pork to please lawmakers as they headed home, but with a price tag acceptable to the White House. Even as the legislative wheels turned in Mr. Bush's direction, the White House was watching with satisfaction as the president's choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, Judge John G. Roberts, continued to win support from all wings of the Republican Party while leaving Democrats with little that might threaten his confirmation. "You can disagree with the merits of individual things, but there's a lot that's been done," said John B. Breaux, the former Democratic senator from Louisiana who often worked across party lines. The president's record over the past few weeks, combined with generally good economic news and word that the budget deficit is shrinking, suggests that Mr. Bush has hardly lapsed into the lame-duck status that Democrats had been hoping to assign him.

Hugh Hewitt blogged For a nation that is the midst of a poker craze, you would think that by now most would have figured out that President Bush isn't the sort of character who calls "All In" twice a month. Rather, he plays his hands well, wins most of the time, and watches as his opponents throw down cards in disgust and walk away. (If you didn't hear Nancy Pelosi's press conference yesterday, you missed the pure sound of a loser who will never be anything but a loser because she cannot get above her own bitterness to ask what it is that allows the president to keep winning hand after hand.)

True enough, Bush hasn't brought home Social Security reform, and Democratic obstruction on that and a host of other issues will be part of the campaign in '06. Bush knows that his place at the table goes on for three and half more years.

But he keeps piling up win after win. When the "legacy" detectives come 'round in '09 and thereafter, they won't be struggling --as they have been with Clinton-- to find anything of note.

Captain Ed blogged It doesn't stop with the laundry list of legislative wins covered by the New York Times and the AP -- two media sources hardly sympathetic to Bush -- but earlier this week he finally forced the Democrats to give a substantive response to his proposed Social Security reforms. Not only did Bush make the Democrats stop playing their faux-Gingrich strategy of yelling "No!" over and over again, but in their haste they put forward a plan which changes nothing in Social Security ... but emphasizes private retirement plans, an endorsement that has privatization opponents shaking their heads.

The Dems continue to underestimate Bush