David Brooks, we heard in Kwame Holman's piece that prescription drugs is the flavor of the month for Republicans and Democrats. Well, it's not clear. The Republicans seem to be in a state of their own personal hell up there on Capitol Hill, what's striking from that report and the last few months is the way they spend so much of their time having lost the issue agenda, avoiding issues one way or the other, really in a state of almost panic. They really haven't recovered from Newt Gingrich from five years ago. They haven't recovered from that defeat.
Government can never be the solution.
But it's a more affirmative use of limited and energetic government that Bush has brought to the stump and really helped move the Republicans past what we're seeing on Capitol Hill, which is pure defensiveness. David Broder, we've heard the Democrats try to take credit for prescription drugs on Capitol Hill for yea, these many months. And it could also be interpreted that they failed to get what they wanted. Well, I don't think they think they failed. They want the issue, and they have made it very clear, really, months ago that they were not prepared to compromise at all with the Republicans, because they wanted to campaign on this issue.