This is the way environmental policy should work. In his first term in Texas, Bush focused on education, welfare reform, crime and tort reform. The first few months have been reserved for tax cuts and education reform. Most other issues are kept off the agenda lest they distract from the main goals. California's power crisis doesn't get visible attention from Bush because he doesn't want to suggest that the administration is responsible for solving it.
Some outside events are too big to duck, especially in international affairs.
In today's Washington, however, Bush's careful stewardship of a limited agenda may not be enough to bring it home. That's not bipartisanship. But Democrats have warned that they won't support his core proposal for education reform unless he agrees to significantly more funding for schools in poor areas, and several Republicans agree. Those amendments are coming. That's where you have a reckoning, ultimately, with his numbers. .