Bush Out Of Reactive Mode?

Well, the Washington Post notes that Bush is having a pretty good run right now with quite a lot of good news. Zarqawi killed, the very media-savvy visit to Iraq, the CA-50 election and the fact that Rove is not a target of the special prosecutor any longer (if he actually ever really was). That coupled with the recent efforts to directly address many of the critics – Peter Wehner's almost regular op-eds these days are an example – means the White house may finally be shaping events instead of reacting to them.

For Bush, any progress at the moment is critical. Iraq has been at the heart of his political troubles, alienating voters weary of the war, unsettling congressional allies facing reelection this fall, and souring the public mood toward other initiatives by the administration. Even Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove's legal problems stemmed from Iraq and the initial White House effort to justify the decision to invade.

With Zarqawi dead, a new Baghdad government in place and Rove freed from prosecutor's cross hairs, the White House hopes it can pivot to a new stage in which it is no longer on the defensive. In recent weeks, under new Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten, the White House has tried to do more to set an agenda, moving aggressively into the immigration debate and agreeing to join direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program under certain conditions.

"There's a sense of motion and energy and progress on different fronts," said Peter H. Wehner, White House director of strategic initiatives. "There's more of a sense that we're shaping events, rather than being controlled by them."

Those are all good things for the country as a whole, even though the Democrats will hate this turn of events. Frankly, the partisan hacking has gotten completely out of control and is really not good for the US or it's public image abroad. One other thing the Democrats will be very unhappy with is this development:

"The other team thought they'd sacked the quarterback, and even if he came back he'd limp anyway," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and a Rove confidant, who had lunch with him yesterday. "Now he's back — no limp." Switching metaphors, Norquist compared Rove to a bull that has been poked but not killed. "Not only is he in fine fettle, not only is he not wounded, he's pricked enough to be angry."

Whoopsie. If you poke a hornet nest, it's usually a good idea to have a plan to deal with the result. Or to be ready to run like heck at the very least.