A White House Without Rove?

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Bush plans to make post-Thanksgiving trips to the Southwest to talk up border security. His aides hope to set the stage for legislation that would both crack down on illegal entry, which appeals to conservatives, and make it easier for undocumented people to become guest workers, which tends to appeal to Hispanic voters. G.O.P. House members who fear that Bush's guest-worker plan could tear the party apart say Administration officials have recently assured them that the White House would support a separate border-security bill first rather than insist on a linked package. Doing so could make it harder for Bush to later get the guest-worker program, which he once thought would give substance to his rhetoric of compassion. That is one of the many ways that Bush, who has always talked about the presidency as a vehicle for doing great things, may have to make concessions to what he once derisively called small ball.

"A President who loves to hit home runs and wants to be remembered for swinging for the fences is being forced to take base hits," says a former White House official. Since 1999 Bush and Rove have imagined engineering a decades-long G.O.P. majority in America. But Republicans fret these days about losing the House or Senate in next year's midterm elections. So if Rove does head out, he may leave behind a wounded President who faces the prospect of having to abandon some of the pair's Texas-size dreams.