Republicans Get an Ear Full

Tip from Bill in DC

After their trips back home over the recess the Republicans have come back to Washington realizing Bush's Social Security Privitzation is a "No Sale" the New York Times Reports.

After a bruising weeklong recess, Congressional Republicans will return to work on Monday chastened by public skepticism over President Bush's plan for private accounts in Social Security. One leading Republican, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, acknowledged that the opposition was better organized while another, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, said bipartisan compromise was unlikely unless the president can change the public mood.

With Bush, as usual, unwilling to compromise and the Democrats seeing no need to compromise it would appear that nothing will happen on the Social Security front. We saw with the Rovian attacks on the AARP that the administration is still willing to burn a lot of political capitol to keep it alive. At the same time it is becoming clear that Republicans, who have to worry about reelection in less than two years, are not willing to go along. Even the poor coverage of the issue in the MSM has not helped Bush sell the plan. Taking a page from the Republican play book labor unions have warned brokerage firms who manage union retirement accounts to back off and they have.
And it's not just those "greedy old folks":

Mr. Santorum, who is the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership and chairman of the subcommittee on Social Security, was heckled by college students - the very audience the Bush administration was counting on to support private accounts - and peppered with questions from retirees.

It is essential that those opposed to the plan keep the pressure on. The administration is on the run on this one but Rove has a history of turning things around.