In the Fred Barnes op-ed I mentioned last week, a Bush aide makes a striking statement defending the President’s terrible poll numbers:

[T]he simple fact of governing in Washington is that popularity is not a measure of power. In the late ’90s, President Clinton’s approval rating stayed well above 60%, even after he was impeached. But Mr. Clinton had almost no clout. True, this was partly because he faced a Republican Congress. A Bush aide was accurate (if self-serving) in drawing the distinction this way: “The difference is between polls in the 40s and changing history and being in the 60s and twiddling your thumbs. We’ll take the 40s. That’s our motto.”

Given that Bush’s poll numbers have slid even further since the Barnes op-ed, what’s the new slogan going to be? Building an empire in the high 30s?

On a more serious note, this quote shows that the Bush people have realized that the President is not very popular, but they’re still going to try to push ahead with their agenda (ie “changing history”) no matter what. Bush may be able to keep getting legislation enacted since the GOP controls Congress, but this approach doesn’t augur well for the Republican Party in the long term. The further they push now, the more the American people will push back later.