They would insist that Bush's proposals are more popular than Clinton's. To some degree, they might be right. But they don't have much margin for error. Actually, they have no margin whatsoever in the Senate, and approximately none in the House, which they control by just a few seats. Indeed, at first glance, one might expect their top political priority to be to make sure they don't lose any congressional seats next year.
Problem is, nobody knows how to do that.
The only modern president to have not lost seats in a midterm election was Clinton in his second term. This suggests that the key is getting the House to move toward impeachment proceedings. Apparently, once you're facing impeachment, nobody is worrying much that you might have too much political power. Martin Gottlieb is a member of the editorial board of the Dayton Daily News.