The Bush mandate in the 2006 elections

Bush: Give me everything I want and that I couldn't get even under a Republican controlled congress or I'll call you an obstructionist.

WASHINGTON -President Bush pushed his signature agenda in a newspaper opinion piece Wednesday while asking Democrats, in charge of the House and Senate for the first time in his presidency, to work with him on legislation over the next two years.

Bush repeated his long-held policies on the war in Iraq, tax cuts, entrepreneurship and changes in Social Security and other entitlement programs in a guest column published in The Wall Street Journal. However, the policies came wrapped in an appeal for bipartisanship the day before Republicans turn over control of Congress to wary Democrats.

And he included a warning: "If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate," Bush wrote.

That, of course, is exactly why the public chose to throw out the Republicans -- so Bush could get everything he wanted from the Democrats instead. It's one of those mandates he always claims to have.