Putting a face on his strategy

BY CRAIG GORDON | Newsday Washington Bureau

September 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - In lifting the veil off his secret terror prisons, a poll-battered President George W. Bush strengthened his political hand as he shifts to next week's 9/11 ceremonies in lower Manhattan and elsewhere, several analysts said yesterday - not a bit too soon ahead of the fall midterm elections.

Whether he can retain that slight tailwind - and use it to boost Republican congressional candidates facing voters in a sour, somewhat anti-Bush mood - will be critical in determining whether Republicans can retain control of Congress.

Bush's speech Wednesday caught much of Washington, not least the Democrats, by surprise, as he fessed up to secret CIA prisons and called for putting 14 top terrorists on trial.

It was those faces of the captured - put forth almost as living proof of Bush's anti-terror bona fides - that helped Bush sharpen an argument he has struggled and largely failed to make for the past year. You may not like the war in Iraq, Bush suggested, but stick with me because this is what I've accomplished, and these kind of terrorists are still out there.

"Almost up to then, it was just rhetoric. Then there were faces," said Stephen Hess, a political analyst at George Washington University. "He's a canny old fighter. He's playing the only card he's got left ... but there is a clear difference between how he views the world and the opposition views the world [on terrorism]."

Bush "got off the defensive," added independent pollster Terry Madonna of Lancaster, Pa. "I think the Democrats thought they were just going to ride in ... and they were somewhat taken aback by the ferocity of the [Bush] response."

Bush followed up on Wednesday's speech with a similar argument yesterday, pointing to several shortfalls in pre-9/11 security procedures that allowed the attacks to come off, and how he fixed them to make America safer.

Bush has been struggling with sagging approval ratings for some time, though he did see an uptick after the recent arrests of terror suspects in London, reaching 42 percent in a mid-August Gallup poll.

To be sure, significant challenges remain for Bush, not least of which is the danger of reminding voters a 15th suspect hasn't been found: Osama bin Laden.

Bush also has to override voters' anger on Iraq by convincing them the deadly fight there is worth it to win the larger war on terror, something fewer and fewer voters believe these days, polls show.

Democrats have been hammering that theme as well in recent days as Bush has sought to shift attention away from Iraq. "They want to stay the course in the face of failure. We won't. We'll change course in Iraq," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Other analysts say voters may have soured so much on Bush and Co. that anything he says now doesn't really hit home. Under that scenario, several independent analysts in town still believe the House will swing Democratic this fall.

But Republican insiders say the White House is betting that casting Democrats as standing in the way of vital tools - like military-style trials and domestic wiretapping - will make them look like they don't have the stomach to do what it takes to lock up guys like the ones Bush talked about this week.

And almost as if on cue, the face of bin Laden surfaced again yesterday on a videotape broadcast by Al-Jazeera showing the planning of the attacks Bush will commemorate Monday.