Bush turns from Texas to Beltway

The days of Texan domination in the White House ended last week with the departure of Karl Rove, and President Bush is now surrounded by longtime Washington hands who are pushing him to do a better job in building ties to both parties in Congress.

It remains to be seen, however, whether the Bush administration’s new Hill-friendly approach will bear any substantive dividends on major issues such as the Iraq war, the federal budget or the confirmation of an attorney general to replace Texan Alberto R. Gonzales.

“This administration has a horrible track record in its dealings with Congress. The arrogance and lack of cooperation of the Bush administration has been something that most Republicans on the Hill have kept quiet about but have been seething about for all these years,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican.

“We had much better cooperation as Republicans from the Clinton White House than we have had from the Bush White House,” Mr. Rohrabacher said. “That is an incredible thing to say, but it’s true.”

Most recently, Mr. Bush’s immigration reform plan was defeated by an insurrection among Republican conservatives, who thought the president’s proposal amounted to amnesty for the country’s estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens.

Rep. Walter B. Jones, North Carolina Republican, said he has not received White House replies on numerous issues, calling it “more or less the legacy of Rove.”

“I had better relationships with the legislative shop under President Clinton — and I voted to impeach him — than I have had under this administration,” Mr. Jones said.

However, the departures of longtime Bush advisers Dan Bartlett and Mr. Rove have permanently shifted the balance of power inside the White House away from what Mr. Rohrabacher called “total arrogance and disregard for the legislative branch.”

In the Texans’ places are White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and Ed Gillespie, who has filled Mr. Bartlett’s spot as counselor to the president.

Mr. Bolten worked for four years on Capitol Hill in the 1980s and replaced Andrew H. Card Jr. last summer. Mr. Gillespie, who worked for more than a decade in Congress after starting as a Senate parking-lot attendant, joined the White House two months ago. Mr. Bolten, who served previously as head of the Office of Management and Budget, brought his OMB deputy Joel Kaplan to the White House, where he assumed some of Mr. Rove’s policy duties.

Mr. Gillespie, the former Republican National Committee chairman, is known as “fast Eddie” to some Democrats and several years ago formed a lobbying group with Jack Quinn, who was chief of staff in the mid-1990s to Vice President Al Gore.

The Rove team will still exert influence through Barry Jackson, who served as Mr. Rove’s deputy and yesterday was promoted by Mr. Bush to manage political affairs and three other offices for which Mr. Rove had been responsible.

Mr. Gillespie said in an interview that the White House has consulted with more than 25 members of Congress “on both sides of the aisle.”

“We’ve been meeting with members very regularly, and it’s a real priority for us,” he said.

Mr. Gillespie’s connections on Capitol Hill and throughout the District indicate that “somebody’s in the room who hasn’t completely drank the Kool-Aid and who cares about the Congress,” said one Republican strategist.

“They’re doing a much better job of consulting with Democrats on the Hill,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. “They’re doing a better job of the simple courtesies of dealing with the Congress as an equal branch of government.”

Mr. Manley said the White House has talked about a replacement for Mr. Gonzales with key Democrats, who were among the former attorney general’s most vociferous critics.

The administration has consulted Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee for administrative oversight and the courts.

But even if White House-Congress relations improve, the debate on the Iraq war will not change significantly.

“I don’t know anybody who’s been supporting the war out of a favor to the president,” Mr. Rohrabacher said. “If it was a personal commitment to George Bush, the war would have failed a long time ago.”