George W. Bush and Washington Governance

How effective was the George W. Bush administration in using the levers of Washington governance to attain its goals? By late in Bush's presidency, his administration had received a reputation as less than competent due to their mismanagement of the response to Hurricane Katrina and the occupation of Iraq. Despite these "headline" reversals, a closer look at the evidence reveals an administration that often was quite effective in pursuing its goals with the federal bureaucracy, Congress and federal courts. The administration consistently pushed for expanded executive power consistent with its embrace of a unitary executive interpretation of their Constitutional power. Yet the hierarchical, managerial and partisan style of the administration proved self-limiting, as it increased partisan rancor in Washington and provided only a narrow margin for error that vanished after the 2006 elections

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