Rove Says Bush Victory May Mark Republican Dominance
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's election victory may begin decades of Republican dominance in U.S. politics, Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser, said.
Rove, who Bush called the ``architect'' of his political campaign, likened the Nov. 2 election to that of 1896, when voters picked Republican William McKinley and ``realigned American politics years afterward.''
``I think the same thing will be here,'' he said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``It depends on how Republicans act in office.''
Bush received 51 percent of the vote, the first presidential candidate to win a majority since 1988, when his father, George H.W. Bush, was elected to follow Ronald Reagan. Republicans also expanded their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. The president said Nov. 4 he will use his ``political capital'' from the victory to push for overhauling federal income tax laws and the Social Security system.
Democrat Barack Obama, who won election to the Senate from Illinois, said the U.S. is not as divided as the vote tallies suggest. Democrats can make gains if they ``present a proactive agenda and vision for the country and not simply run against something,'' he said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program.
Republican Success
Republicans won because they were more successful in talking about ``values and morality'' and conflating the issues of terrorism and Iraq, Obama, one of two Democrats to take a Senate seat from the Republicans, said.
In the next session of Congress, Republicans will have an edge in the Senate of 55 to 44 with one independent, and 231 of the 435 seats in the House. Rove said his party must make progress on its agenda to preserve the gains.
``There are no permanent majorities in American politics,'' Rove said on the NBC program. ``They last for about 20 or 30 or 40, or, in the case of the Roosevelt coalition, 50 or 60 years, and then they disappear. But would I like to see the Republican Party be the dominant party for whatever time history gives it the chance to be? You bet.''
Following the presidential victory by Republican McKinley with 51 percent of the vote in 1896, Republicans won six of the next eight presidential elections. They also held a congressional majority for all but six years of that span.
Democrats returned to dominate after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 in the wake of the Great Depression.
Surveys of voters after they cast ballots showed that 22 percent considered ``moral values'' the top issue at stake in the election, more than named the economy, Iraq or terrorism.
Amendment
Rove said Bush ``absolutely'' will pursue a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. Bush supports letting states make laws that would give same-sex partners visitation rights in hospitals and inheritance rights, he said.
``Marriage is a very important part of our culture and our society,'' Rove said. ``If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal. And the ideal is that marriage ought to be and should be a union of a man and a woman. And we cannot allow activist judges to overturn that.''
Another area where Bush will influence U.S. politics is in judicial appointments, including the Supreme Court. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 80, is being treated for thyroid cancer and there are four justices in their 70s or 80s.
`Impartial Umpires'
The president believes judges should be ``impartial umpires,'' Rove said, and Bush will seek to appoint judges who ``strictly interpret the Constitution.'' He said there is no ``litmus test'' to only appoint judges who oppose abortion.
Any appointment is subject to confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who was re-elected on Nov. 2, said last week the Senate was unlikely to confirm judges that would overturn the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that permits women to have abortions. Bush opposes the ruling, and religious groups that back him have called for it to be overturned.
James Dobson, founder of the advocacy group ``Focus on the Family,'' said on ABC's ``This Week'' program that Specter ``is a problem and he must be derailed.''
Specter, who is in line to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on CBS's ``Face the Nation'' that his comment reflected the ``political fact'' that Republicans, with 55 seats in the chamber, are five votes short of the 60 needed to prevent Democrats from blocking nominations through unlimited debate, a tactic known as a filibuster.
Specter, who backs a woman's right to have an abortion, said his critics were ``the same people who came to Pennsylvania from all over the country to try to defeat me in the primary election.''
``And they were unsuccessful,'' he said. ``They do not like my independence.''
Rove said Specter promised that ``every one of the president's nominees would receive a prompt hearing, a vote in the committee within a reasonable period of time, and that his appellate nominees would all be brought to the floor for an up-or- down decision on the floor.''
``Senator Specter's a man of his word, and we'll take him at his word,'' Rove said on Fox.
