When he isn't burning CIA agents, the Prince of Darkness can be a pretty good reporter, and willing to go off the happy-talk reservation.
A few highlights from his column today:
Novak describes a meeting last week where Bush surrogates were given their talking points. The meeting was a couple of hours after Greenspan let the cat out of the bag on cutting Social Security for the sake of Bush's tax cuts - but provided no talking points, whereas Kerry started hammering on it almost immediately:
Many prospective surrogates left campaign headquarters profoundly depressed by the mediocre briefing and the material given them.
This fits the deepening malaise among Republicans in the capital. They are neither surprised nor terribly worried by polls that temporarily show George W. Bush trailing John Kerry. What worries the GOP faithful is the absence of firm leadership in their party either at the White House or on Capitol Hill.
And it only gets better:
The disaffection is such that over the last two weeks, normally loyal Republicans -- actually including more than a few members of Congress -- are privately talking about political merits in the election of Sen. Kerry.
Their reasoning, apparently, is that if Bush wins, Dems might win back both houses in '06, whereas the GOP would be likely to retain control if Kerry wins. (I'm not sure of either premise, but that's what GOPers are thinking.)
Novak goes on to discuss the "disappointing" - from his point of view - results of GOP dominance in Washington, adding that:
... incipient heresy also reflects shortcomings of the Bush political operation. Its emphasis has been on fund-raising and organization, with deficiencies in communicating and leadership. The president is in political trouble, and his disaffected supporters who should be backing him aggressively provide the evidence.
Put this together with a tantalizing hint that Josh Marshall dropped yesterday (scroll to the bottom of the post), and the picture is of a Bush campaign that is seriously off stride - and of Republicans who are starting to eye the lifeboats.
-- Rick Robinson
