Pols As Usual, Vacations Or No

Even as President Bush left for an August break along with much of official Washington, he had his eye on the fall ball that is the long to-do list he has assembled for Congress.

He also hit golf balls, along with his dad, former President Bush.

The younger Bush Saturday hailed the bipartisanship involved in the recent approval of numerous bills, but went on to take a veiled swipe at Senate Democrats in the dispute over his proposed Homeland Security Department.

Later, he threatened a veto in the matter.

In turn, Democrats swiped back, over the stalemated Medicare prescription drug bill.

In his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush used positive reinforcement in an attempt to motivate lawmakers to move on his pet priorities.

"We've had a month of accomplishment in Washington," he said. "Congress acted on several important proposals."

"In the last month we've proven how much we can get done when everyone in Washington works together on behalf of the American people."

He urged lawmakers to set aside politics, despite November elections shaping up as a hard-fought battle over control of the Senate and House of Representatives.

"I know in the fall of an election year the tendency is to focus more on scoring political points than on making progress. I hope the Congress will reject this approach," the president said.

One of the measures Congress sent him was a spending bill to support the war on terrorism and beef up domestic security. Mr. Bush signed it before leaving Washington on Friday for a long weekend here at his family's summer home on the Maine coast.

Mr. Bush also celebrated the long-desired passage of legislation granting him authority to negotiate free-trade pacts that Congress can only approve or reject, but not amend, and promised to sign it Tuesday.

Another welcome development was passage of a law, largely written by Democrats, cracking down on corporate crooks.

But the president noted that the Democrat-controlled Senate had failed to act quickly to establish the homeland security department and urged Senators to set aside objections over giving the agency more flexibility in budgets and personnel.

"The new secretary of homeland security will need the freedom and flexibility to respond to threats by getting the right people into the right jobs at the right time — without a lot of bureaucratic hurdles," he said.

"The protection of our homeland is much more important than the narrow politics of special interests," he added.

Senate Democrats, backed by their allies in organized labor, oppose Mr. Bush's aim to limit civil service protections for workers in the new department. Mr. Bush has vowed to veto legislation lacking what he calls management flexibility.

Democrats also have resisted his request for limited authority to shift congressionally allocated money among various agencies within the department.

In the prerecorded radio address, Mr. Bush pressed the House and Senate to make working out their differences on a spending plan for national defense their "first priority" once they return from their August recess.

Also on the president's agenda of unfinished business for the fall are welfare reform, terrorism insurance for businesses, a wide-ranging energy bill, improved protections for employee pension plans, legislation further opening government programs to religious groups, and the Medicare drug benefits bill.

But these issues have been the focus of partisan debate and prospects for early agreement seem remote.

And it was the drug bill that drew the attention of Democrats Saturday.

With the upcoming midterm elections clearly in mind, they were busy seeking to lay the blame for Congress' failure to provide Medicare prescription drug benefits squarely on Republican shoulders.

"During the debate on a Medicare prescription benefit the last three weeks, Senate Republicans again have done everything in their power to defeat our effort to get lower cost prescriptions for seniors," said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. "Senate Democrats will keep fighting for an affordable, voluntary and universal benefit."

The Senate stalemated over competing plans for providing prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, after the House approved a $320 billion version that Democrats say covers too few people.

The issue is a potent one with voters, and lawmakers on both sides worry they will suffer at the polls in November because of the impasse.

But in what may be a sign of the issue's place on his priority list, Mr. Bush devoted less air time to prescription drugs than any other in his address - just eight words.

Mr. Bush's 32-day escape from the heat and "hollering" of Washington started with a hug for his parents, ex-President George H. W. Mr. Bush and Barbara Mr. Bush, and a turn on the treadmill at their Walker's Point estate.

Saturday found the president playing a round of golf near dawn with the elder Mr. Bush, whose face bore the red blotches of recent treatment for sun-induced keratoses, the result of years of exposure to the sun.

At the first tee, as the former president, 78, joked that his age permits him to swing from the easier ladies' tee, White House aides handed reporters a statement from the Mayo Clinic. It emphasized he does not have skin cancer and said "the prognosis for total recovery is excellent."

In the afternoon, the former president took the helm of his Fidelity II speedboat and chauffeured his son - in a long "boat-cade" - to Proust's Neck for a fund-raiser benefiting Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

In a feisty speech, the president delivered a message previously left to underlings: he will veto any homeland security department bill that does not give him broad power to hire and fire and change job assignments within the new Cabinet agency.

"I will not accept a bill that doesn't allow me to adequately manage people and resources to better protect the homeland. The Senate must not work to protect its own turf, they must work to protect the American people," Mr. Bush said.

Siblings Marvin and Dorothy were along for the brief holiday, but first lady Laura Bush and the couple's twin daughters were not.

Mr. Bush returns to Washington on Monday afternoon, leaving barely a day later for Crawford, Texas, until Labor Day. His stay at his beloved 1,600-acre ranch is interspersed with trips, official functions and fund-raisers for GOP candidates.

The president will mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by visiting New York City, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania where United Flight 93 crashed.