Motives In Place For Avoiding Gridlock

A Republican president in his last two years in office who is used to dealing with a GOP-run Congress, suddenly is faced with having to work with a Democrat-controlled House and a Senate that might be run by the opposition party, as well.

Many pundits see that as a prescription for gridlock.

But on The Early Show Wednesday, three observers of the Washington scene said, not necessarily.

Mr. Bush "doesn't wanna be a lame duck, No. 1, so he's going to reach across the aisle, because he has no other choice," pointed out CBS News national political correspondent Gloria Borger. "And, if he doesn't want his legacy to be just Iraq, but he wants to get back to those big issues that he's always been talking about, like social security, like immigration, he's going to have to reach across the aisle."

That said, Borger continued: "This White House has never been good even at reaching into its own Republican ranks, much less reaching across the aisle. So, it's going to be a whole different environment. … (But) he's also used to reaching across the aisle. He did it when he was the governor of Texas. And so this may be a more comfortable environment for him, to a certain degree, believe it or not."

Amy Walter, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, said: "If you are a Democrat right now, you know you won because people said, 'I want something different. I want change. I don't like what's going on in Washington. I don't like what's going on in this country. Move it along.' (They had) better move it!"

She added: "Remember, now, instead of running against Republicans or against the president, (Democrats) are going to have to run with a democratic-controlled (House, perhaps Senate)."

On the other hand, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson fell into the gridlock-likely camp, saying: "The president may not want to be a lame duck, but I think he's gonna be quacking a little bit. … I tend to think maybe something will get done, but there's a lot more of the same gridlock. When the Republicans ran everything, they couldn't get much done. If you think a Republican-run Senate and a Democrat-run House is gonna get a lot done, I'm not sure."

Attkisson and Borger agreed that incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will have to do some reaching out of a different sort: within her own party.

"A lot of people are assuming there will be a sharp left turn in the House because Nancy Pelosi is a left-winger, and she's well-known for her views," Attkisson said. "But it's not going to be so easy. Her job is to take two ends of the spectrum and try to make them work together within own her party, because a lot of these new Democrats who've been elected are social conservatives and don't agree with her liberal agenda on a lot of the issues."

"The problem," Borger noted, "will be that a lot of the committee chairmen are going to be liberal, and the people coming in are going to be these moderate conservatives, so there's gonna be an issue within her own caucus."