Financial crisis dims Bush’s Iraq legacy

One month ago, President Bush may have expected to end his time in office highlighting the success of the surge in Iraq, a story of vindication.

But in the past two weeks, the U.S. economy has teetered at least twice.

Now, instead of an exit in which Iraq was a large part of the legacy conversation, Mr. Bush is confronted with a final 15 weeks full of questions about how much he is to blame for the economic crisis.

“If the economy doesn’t show any signs of turning around, that will trump the good news in Iraq,” said a senior Republican aide on Capitol Hill.

To top it off, a special prosecutor with free rein to investigate the administration was appointed last week.

Of all the bad days in the past two weeks, last Monday may have been the worst, drilling home the administration’s near powerlessness to influence lawmakers in its own party, the seriousness of the economic crisis, and the scenario of former and current senior White House officials being subpoenaed for testimony.

• Explore different election-night scenarios with our ‘Road to 270’ interactive electoral college map

It was bad enough that House Republicans rebuked the president by rejecting his economic rescue plan, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points.

“The vote Monday was aimed at Bush,” said Paul Weyrich, a longtime conservative leader in Washington.

The White House spent last Monday in an all-hands-on-deck lobbying effort as the president and “everyone with a phone” called House Republican lawmakers who were undecided about the $700 billion rescue package.

But 133 of 199 House Republicans rejected the president’s entreaties and voted against the bill.

“The level of trust between members and the administration is at an all-time low, and nowhere was it more evident than during the push for this bailout,” a House Republican leadership aide said.

The Republican aide largely blamed Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. for much of the initial failure of the rescue plan.

“Members have a visceral hatred of Paulson and they universally blame him for the public relations disaster that resulted from his rollout of this bailout plan,” the aide said.

That same day, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey named a special prosecutor to investigate the administration’s firings of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006.

Story Continues →