Kennedy, Bush Renew Odd-Couple Partnership for Immigration Push - Yahoo! News: "Kennedy, Bush Renew Odd-Couple Partnership for Immigration Push Holly Rosenkrantz
Wed Apr 11, 12:10 AM ET
April 11 (Bloomberg) -- At a St. Patrick's Day luncheon in the U.S. Capitol last month, President George W. Bush and Senator Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) chatted amiably about Irish politics. They avoided any mention of the war in Iraq, a conflict the Massachusetts Democrat has consistently opposed and routinely assailed.
That discussion, Kennedy said, was typical of the way the two scions of political dynasties have been able to forge one of the most unlikely collaborations in Washington. It is a partnership in which Kennedy, 75, is simultaneously one of Bush's harshest critics and his top Democratic ally on issues such as immigration and education.
Kennedy is ``one of the best legislative senators there is,'' Bush, 60, said last month. Bush has ``very good interpersonal skills,'' Kennedy said in an interview March 30.
With only a few months to go before the 2008 presidential race eclipses policy making, Bush and Kennedy are putting their differences aside to accomplish goals that are controversial within each of their parties. Both want to change the nation's immigration system by creating a path to citizenship for about 12 million illegal immigrants, and both want to renew the ``No Child Left Behind'' educational programs they teamed up to push through Congress in 2001.
Ups and Downs"
The conciliatory tone masks a relationship that has veered between outright hostility and cooperation since Bush first won the presidency in 2000. Kennedy was one of 21 Democratic senators to vote against the resolution giving Bush the authority to invade Iraq, a war he described in 2004 as `` George Bush's Vietnam.''
The Republican Party and the administration have responded in kind. In November 2005, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Kennedy had ``found more time to say negative things about President Bush than he ever did about Saddam Hussein.''
Kennedy said he has tried to ``get things done'' throughout his 44-year career in the Senate, regardless of his disagreements with the White House. ``I had strong differences with President Johnson on Vietnam, but we still made progress on domestic issues like education,'' he said. ``I, of course, feel strongly about the war and have spoken about that.''
While it is unlikely that Kennedy and Bush will ever renew the warm ties of 2001 -- when they socialized at the White House and traveled together on Air Force One to promote their shared agenda -- they are once again meeting privately, and are expressing the same kinds of pleasantries they shared when Bush first became president.
Private Meeting
Eager to get a deal on immigration, staff from the White House and Kennedy's office met three times in February to resolve concerns that stalled the bill last year. Bush and Kennedy had a private meeting on the issue in January, and discussed it again during a lunch at the White House in February.
Last year, Kennedy and White House political director Karl Rove also met on the issue. ``Senator Kennedy has been in constant communication with the administration about the bill,'' his spokeswoman Laura Capps said.
In the meetings with Bush, Kennedy said, he focuses on their shared agenda, urging the president to add more money to the education budget and step up his involvement on immigration overhaul.
Strategic Divides
Although a solid majority of Senate Democrats supports an immigration bill similar to the one backed by Bush, there are still divisions. Senator Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) of New York, the head of the Democrats' campaign committee, prefers playing tough with Bush, arguing that will help Democrats politically in 2008 in states with large Hispanic populations. Kennedy, who has been advocating immigration legislation for more than four decades, wants a bill even if it involves compromises with the White House.
In his meetings with Bush, Kennedy said he makes sure to raise his concerns about Iraq, but ``only in a very light-dash way.'' And Bush has acknowledged those concerns. ``We can agree on this, Ted,'' Bush said, according to Kennedy, while they were discussing immigration in the private meeting in January. ``But we some time ought to come back to Iraq.''
Bush came into office saying he wanted to improve bipartisan relations in Washington, and Kennedy was a prime target. As a presidential candidate in 2000, Bush greeted Kennedy at the funeral of Republican Senator Paul Coverdell of Georgia by saying, ``I understand that what you do, you do well.'' He tracked down Kennedy on a Caribbean vacation in December of that year, and asked him to be his partner on his ``No Child Left Behind'' education program.
Hot Dogs and a Movie
During his first weeks in office, he invited the entire Kennedy family to the White House to share hot dogs and watch a movie about the late President John F. Kennedy's handling of the Cuban missile crisis.
After the education package was passed by Congress, Bush and Kennedy went on a national tour to promote it. In town-hall meetings, Bush frequently joked that people in Texas would ``sure be surprised'' that one of his best friends in Washington was the Massachusetts liberal.
The joking stopped after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Kennedy was one of the fiercest critics of Bush's linkage of the invasion of Iraq with the war on terrorism. ``There was no imminent threat; this was made up in Texas,'' Kennedy said in 2003.
`Past the Bar'
In the interview, Kennedy said he had tried ``not to get personal'' in his criticism of Bush's policies, though he acknowledged that ``I've gone past the bar in some statements.''
``Their relationship did change, I think in large part because of Iraq,'' said McClellan, who left the White House last year.
Bush has let Kennedy's comments ``roll off his back,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. ``He has been disappointed that he hasn't been able to change the tone in Washington, but you can't hold a grudge.''
Bush and Kennedy share some personal history. Kennedy's brother, the future president, entered the Senate in 1953, the same year as Bush's grandfather, Prescott S. Bush. In 1990, Kennedy worked with Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, on the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act. The Bush family has supported one of the Kennedy family's principal charities, the Special Olympics, organized by Kennedy's sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Kennedy said his affection for Bush doesn't necessarily extend to the entire administration. Asked about Rove, for example, he said, ``Let me just say, my sister Eunice has a better relationship with him than I do.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net .
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