State of disunion

A president who two years ago boasted of his political capital began the last two years of his presidency last night stripped of his Republican congressional majorities and forced to ask new Democratic leaders "to work through our differences." But on the issue most responsible for the erosion of his power, the war in Iraq, President Bush came looking not for advice and counsel but for a rubber stamp for his decision to escalate US involvement with more than 20,000 troops.

Bush's recent flat rejection of the proposals of the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton panel must have left members of Congress shaking their heads at the proposal in his State of the Union address for a new special advisory council on the war on terror, made up of congressional leaders from both parties. The time for such collaboration was in 2002 and early 2003, before Bush made the fateful decision to invade Iraq. Describing the war's current downward spiral, Bush said, "This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in." It is also exactly the fight that many outside his narrow circle of advisers were predicting before the war began.

He will likely find Congress more willing to cooperate on his proposals on education, health care, and reduction of US dependence on gasoline. But it's the president's bad luck that he is addressing energy independence and climate change with half-hearted measures in the same week that 10 major corporations are showing genuine leadership with a plan for a sweeping limit on greenhouse gas emissions by utilities and industry. Bush focuses only on cars, which cause less than one-third of emissions. He is calling for more use of ethanol in the fuel mix and asks once again for permission from Congress to change the auto efficiency standards system.

Greater use of ethanol makes sense if more of it comes from sources like switchgrass or agricultural waste, not from corn, which drives up food prices and consumes too much energy itself in its production.

Bush already has the right to tighten auto efficiency standards, subject to a congressional veto. What he is seeking is to change the system away from overall fleet standards to separate efficiency levels based on vehicle size. This would not necessarily result in substantial fuel savings.

The president's best chance to find common ground with Democrats in creating a legislative legacy for himself is in immigration reform. His restatement last night of his support for both more secure borders and a system for allowing in temporary foreign workers could form a basis for a compromise that will keep alive the "great tradition of the melting pot that welcomes and assimilates new arrivals."

On domestic policy, the president's words were conciliatory. But he is still going it alone in Iraq, losing even many in his own party.