President Bush A Lame Duck?
WOODRUFF: President Bush is rejecting talk that he is losing clout early in his second term, and he vows to push ahead with his top priorities. Mr. Bush discussed a wide range of issues at a news conference this morning. With us now, CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveax. Hi, Suzanne.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Well, President Bush spent much of his 50-minute news conference really trying to dismiss some of the setbacks the administration is experiencing both overseas as well as at home. A very poignant moment came in the news conference when President Bush was confronted with a human rights group report, a report that compared the U.S. facility -- detention facility -- at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with a Soviet-era prison, laden with abuse. The president's response...</s>BUSH: I'm aware there were Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's an absurd allegation. The United States is a country that is -- promotes freedom around the world. When there's accusations made about certain actions by our people, they're fully investigated in a transparent way. It's just an absurd allegation.</s>MALVEAUX: Judy, the president also addressed the rising insurgency in Iraq. That -- that has claimed about 100 -- rather, 800 people's lives in the last month or so. The president saying that he believes the newly-formed Iraqi government, the people there, can certainly handle it and that at some point, they will be able to take on that challenge. The president also addressing the number of setbacks in the domestic front. The legislative agenda, not being able to push forward his legislation regarding Social Security, regarding energy, or his judicial nominees.</s>BUSH: Those are big issues that require action. Again, things don't happen instantly in Washington, D.C.</s>MALVEAUX: President Bush was also asked, of course, whether or not he agreed with the Secret Service decision not to notify him while he was riding his bicycle when they had -- the White House was evacuated, the Capitol as well, during that security scare that happened some weeks ago. The president saying that he was confident that he agreed. With that decision, however, he was pushed just a little bit, Judy, by a reporter who said, well, he acknowledged that the First Lady has publicly said that she didn't agree with that decision. She was shuttled into a bunker while all of that took place. The president kind of laughed, he shrugged it off. He was asked, do you often disagree with your wife? He says, well, yes, that happens -- Judy.</s>WOODRUFF: I suppose that's happened in other marriages at different times, too. Suzanne, thank you very much.</s>MALVEAUX: Thank you.</s>WOODRUFF: Well, for more now on how the president is faring in pushing his agenda on Capitol Hill, we're joined by CNN congressional correspondent Ed Henry. Hi, Ed.</s>ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Judy, the president clearly was prodding Congress. He was perturbed by the slow pace on Capitol Hill and that frustration comes in marked contrast to the president we saw back in November at his first press conference after the election. At that time, the president was riding high, not just because of his own reelection, but due to increased Republican majorities in the House and Senate. That was supposed to set a glide path for bold reform, everything Suzanne just mentioned, from Social Security to broad tax changes, as well. But those grand plans, as well as many other initiatives like the energy bill, the nomination of John Bolton, have gotten bogged down, which leads to a natural question. As a lame duck president, has Mr. Bush already started losing momentum on Capitol Hill?</s>BUSH: My attitude toward Congress is -- will be reflected on whether or not they're capable of getting anything done. We got a good budget out of Congress, and we got some legal reform out of Congress. We got Priscilla Owen confirmed in the Senate, which is a positive thing. Looks like we'll get a couple of more judges on the appellate bench confirmed. But I think the standard by which Congress should be judged is whether or not they can get an energy bill. And I think they will.</s>HENRY: Two interesting points about that answer. Number one, the president did not lash out at Democrats there. He spoke generally about Congress. A Congress, of course, run by his fellow Republicans. And, secondly, the president made it clear that while he's appreciative, that Republican leaders have scored victories on the budget, legal reform, bankruptcy reform, he's expecting far more. And this comes on the heels of a blistering editorial in Friday's "Wall Street Journal," which basically declared this Republican Congress has been a disappointment so far. Still, we also heard optimism from the president in that answer, specifically on Social Security. He made the case later in the press conference that his barnstorming tour has already made progress.</s>BUSH: You might remember a couple of months ago around this town people were saying it's not a problem. What's he bringing it up for? Nobody sees it as a problem except for him and then all of a sudden, people began to look at the facts and realize that in 2017, Social Security -- the pay-as-you-go system will be in the red. 2042, it's going to be bankrupt.</s>HENRY: Still, Republicans on Capitol Hill are a little less upbeat about getting a deal on Social Security. That might have something to do with the fact that congressional Republicans have to face the voters next year while the president does not. And Judy, polls show the majority of the public still is not sold on private accounts. Republicans on the Hill watching those polls very closely.</s>WOODRUFF: So where is the president getting this optimism from? Because when you talk to people on the Hill, they hem and haw and they're not as positive as the president is.</s>HENRY: I think he's getting the optimism from himself. He's heard time and time again in the first term of his presidency he could not get things done. He could not get a large tax cut, for example. As soon as he came to office, that he didn't have enough political capital to do it. And he repeatedly has looked at naysayers and said I can get it done. And we heard again today in this press conference, he compared getting Social Security reform to getting water to cut through a rock. And he said I'm just going to work at it and work at it. And that's what he's doing. He's getting that optimism, I think, from himself. He's done this before, he's proven the naysayers wrong, and he thinks he's going to do it again.</s>WOODRUFF: How much collaboration is there, Ed, and agreement on strategy between the White House and the Republican leadership in the Congress?</s>HENRY: I think it's gone a little bit off kilter, in part because of Tom DeLay's ethics woes. We have seen a Republican leadership that is not completely in synche with the White House, in part because they have been distracted. Distracted by DeLay, distracted in the Senate by this fight about the nuclear option, distracted by the John Bolton nomination, which a lot of Republicans did not expect it to become such a firecracker. And so I think there have been a lot of other side issues. They're clearly still on the same page, but there have been a lot of distractions the Republicans on the Hill were not expecting that have taken them a little off message.</s>WOODRUFF: OK. Ed Henry, who is visiting us at the bureau today. He's usually over at the Capitol. Thank you very much, Ed.</s>HENRY: Thank you.</s>WOODRUFF: Appreciate it. Well the Watergate era, as we call it, was three decades ago, but it's a sizzling topic today on the Internet. When we return, we'll go "Inside the Blogs" to find out what is being said about the new Deep Throat claims.