President Bush bade farewell to leaders of the outgoing Republican majority in Congress on Friday and promised to meet regularly with their incoming Democratic replacements.
“I assured the leaders that the White House door will be open when the new Congress shows up,” Bush said after huddling with leaders of both parties in the Cabinet Room of the White House. “We ought to meet on a regular basis; I believe there¹s consensus for that.
” And the reason you meet on a regular basis is so that the American people can know that we¹re working hard to find common ground,” he said.
“That’s what they expect us to do; they expect us to work on big problems and solve them.”
Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Friday’s session “a transition meeting” that was “more about the terms of engagement” than a substantive policy debate. But she said the president will need to change his policies soon in response to last month’s electoral win by Democrats, and this week’s report by the Iraq Study Group.
“The time for change is now and is apparent to the American people,” she said after the meeting. “They made this decision one month and one day ago. And the Iraq Study Group reinforced some of the concerns.”
Democrats who attended the meeting already have one thing in common with Bush – they don’t agree with all the advice contained in the Iraq Study Group report.
“I don’t endorse every single one of the 79 recommendations,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the incoming majority whip. “I have differences and I’m sure other members do as well.”
That might provide some political cover for Bush, who disagrees with the report’s call for direct talks with Syria and Iran. Bush has also refrained from endorsing the report’s recommendation to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraq by early 2008.
When reporters were ushered in at the end of Friday’s meeting, Bush made a point of praising “my two friends,” outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. He said Frist “brought a lot of dignity to the office” and Hastert has “done a fine job as speaker.”
