Hastert rips White House=The Hill.com=
Republicans on the Hill are so frustrated with the White House that when Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) criticized the administration at a House GOP meeting last week, the caucus burst into applause.
A rank-and-file lawmaker said: �Hastert was frustrated and disappointed that he had not been dealt with openly and fairly and given accurate information. He was not so much speaking to the conference as he was speaking for the conference.�
The catalog of GOP complaints against the executive branch is long. A senior Republican House member said his colleagues frequently disparqage the White House communications team, particularly on articulating its policy in Iraq.
Hastert�s frustrations are not only with the administration but also with the Senate.
Speaking at yesterday�s GOP conference, he referred to the refusal of some Senate Repubicans to remove pay-as-you-go restrictions in the budget resolution, which would make it easier to reduce taxes, and said: �We have met the enemy, and it is us.�
The meeting was only the latest sign in an accumulating body of evidence that lawmakers are unhappy with the way the administration treats them.
One GOP lawmaker at the caucus meeting said Hastert �expressed outright dismay with the White House staff for the way the transportation bill had been handled. They did not give the priority necessary to the issue in resolving it as the Speaker had wanted. It�s in absolute limbo.�
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