Fear and Anxiety In Senate GOP

Robert Novak - Republicans on Capitol Hill were stunned last Saturday when the Zogby Poll reported that Bush's national approve-disapprove ratio has slipped into negative territory for the first time (with only 45 percent saying he is doing a good job). That couples with continued job losses across the country and the rising cost of Iraq, in blood and treasure. On top of that, GOP senators are depressed that Democrats are winning the judicial confirmation war. A worried freshman Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina puts all this together and calls it "the perfect storm."

In nearly half a century of Congress-watching, I frequently have observed senators of a president's own party head for the lifeboats when any storm -- perfect or not -- approaches. Today's Senate Republicans have not reached that point, but fear and anxiety among them is palpable.

Most of the danger is directed at the Defense Department's management of the Iraqi reconstruction. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, who has an excellent relationship with the president, is described by friends as feeling the Pentagon misled him. The committee's second ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel, feels even more strongly about it. So does Sen. John McCain, who had buried the hatchet with George W. Bush to vigorously support the Iraqi intervention.

Bush political adviser Karl Rove always has predicted a close presidential election for 2004, just as he did for 2000. Republican senators now realize Rove was not kidding, and they no longer laugh at Howard Dean challenging Bush for the presidency.