The Bush Senators

...Concentrating his private attention on Pryor, Bush lobbied for the confirmation of judicial nominee Miguel Estrada...

...But when the White House sought twice to help him, it backfired both times...

...So the question is: What is their obligation to Bush now...

...Asylum won't work," he said...

...They also know they have a great friend in the Senate...

...It was, however, for the core group of Coleman, Chambliss, Talent, and Sununu...

...I took it as a compliment I didn't need more face time with the president," he says...

...Sununu has a plan for splitting the Bush tax bill and passing it in separate votes, a tactic the White House has also discussed...

...The White House didn't satisfy unemployed mill workers either when it liberalized rules for using jobless aid...

...The president "is a friend and I have friends I disagree with...

...Days later, Pryor announced that he would oppose the Estrada nomination...

...They are independent people," says a presidential adviser...

...He's a strong advocate of creating individual investment accounts in Social Security and attends White House meetings on the issue...

...When Rove called, Sununu says, he'd ask: "What's Shaheen doing...

...Bush pointedly did not discourage John Sununu, 38, from taking on an incumbent Republican senator in New Hampshire, Bob Smith...

...He favors "association health plans" to help small businesses offer health insurance, an idea Bush hasn't embraced but might like...

...Having him there was huge...

...Since the lunch, that's happened, Coleman said...

...While the Republicans in attendance were all pro-Estrada, Pryor hadn't declared how he would vote...

...Many adopted Bush's agenda...

...At a rally at the Savannah airport three days before the election, "folks were literally hanging from the rafters...

...It's not a bad deal...

...I worked hard...

...At the White House, "they understand you have to be successful back home...

...And there are two other reasons why the president and the GOP Senate class of 2002 bonded...

...The more Bush talked, the more uncomfortable Pryor looked...

...Chambliss's strongest misgivings are about Bush's plan, now on hold, to grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants...

...Having him say the right things was huge...

...Just don't do anything in the primary that might make winning the general election more difficult, he advised...

...Each senator insists he's not a knee-jerk "Bush" senator...

...Should lock-step backing of the White House be expected...

...He backs Bush passionately on Iraq and also on judicial nominations, Social Security reform, and the tax cut...

...We're even...

...His only objection to the tax cut is the absence of a reduction in the capital gains tax rate...

...The president sat between the lone Democrat at the lunch, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and the newly appointed senator from Alaska, Lisa Murkow-ski, daughter of Gov...

...If the guy survives, he needs to be treated as a war criminal...

...When he questioned Bush at the lunch, Coleman was eager for the administration to market its proposal to eliminate taxes on dividends more effectively—so folks "in the coffee shop in Mankato" would be convinced...

...Bush appeared five times for Talent, and three times each for Coleman, Chambliss, and Sununu...

...We took them and put them in a TV ad...

...It's an equal thing...

...At the lunch, Chambliss offered Bush this piece of advice: Don't let Saddam Hussein off the hook by allowing him to go into exile...

...You better win...

...Georgia was the best Republican state in the 2002 election...

...Bush's fleeting mention of Social Security reform in his State of the Union address was enough, Sununu believes, "to make sure folks understood the president and Karl Rove still believe in this as much as ever" At the lunch, Sununu sat at the far end of the table from Bush...

...I hope we have a special relationship" between Bush and the 2002 class...

...The president cleared the Republican field in Georgia for Saxby Chambliss, 59, to challenge Democratic senator Max Cle-land...

...The administration tried to accommodate the need for more money to buy home heating oil, but failed to meet expectations in New Hampshire and forced Sununu to devote time to explaining what had happened...

...But gratitude Bush does expect...

...Presidents often barely know freshman senators, but Bush is unusually close to the class of 2002...

...During a walk in the Rose Garden and a chat beside the White House swimming pool in 2001, he personally persuaded Coleman, 53, to run...

...BY FRED BARNES PRESIDENT BUSH invited his favorite class to the White House in early February for lunch in the Old Family Dining Room...

...We've talked to the White House a lot on that issue...

...They are compassionate conservative Republicans...

...What are the papers doing...

...Coleman believes he's figured out the proper relationship with Bush...

...Talent spent time as a House member (eight years), as did Chambliss (eight) and Sununu (six), and developed a kind of compassionate conservative agenda of his own before Bush popularized the phrase "compassionate conservative...

...During his campaign, Sununu was frequently in contact with Rove...

...One of them, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, asked for "permission to speak freely," got it, and told Bush that Republicans need more help in selling his new tax cut...

...He helped me," Coleman says...

...After the president talked about Iraq and judges, the senators spoke up...

...That'd be great...

...Fred Barnes is executive editor of THE WEEKLY STANDARD...

...He loves Bush's slogan that government should do only a few things and do them well...

...Some of his ideas are different from, but not inconsistent with, Bush's...

...Got enough money...

...But he'd never do anything to embarrass Bush or hurt his presidency, Coleman says...

...If any Republican disagrees with Bush on a major issue, he should be willing "to look the president in the eye" and tell him so...

...But I'll challenge him on trade with Cuba, and on ANWR we're in a different place...

...He also showed up for four other new senators—Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina, Lamar Alexander in Tennessee, John Cornyn in Texas, and Lindsey Graham in South Carolina—but his support wasn't crucial in their races...

...Talent was a force behind the passage of welfare reform in 1996 and now wants the welfare system to promote marriage...

...There's 1 no question but that [Bush's inter- > vention] made a difference," Chambliss says...

...Like Coleman, Chambliss is with Bush on this year's big issues (Iraq, taxes, Social Security, judges), especially the naming of conservative federal judges...

...Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove were on hand...

...The president told Chambliss he didn't have to worry...

...Bush isn't about to...

...Not quite...

...Bush helped Jim Talent, 46, resist pressure to run for governor of Missouri and seek the Senate seat held by Democrat Jean Carnahan instead...

...I want [the president] to be successful," he says...

...Frank Murkows-ki...

...Bush moved heaven and earth for them and they know that...

...He advised the president against putting the $15 billion package to combat AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean into a global fund under the control of other nations...

...It consisted of senators elected in last fall's election—the Bush class...

...Sununu's half-serious response was, "Stop helping me...

...His best issue, Talent says, was defending "Missouri values and Missouri interests...

...He hasn't had to yet...

...On oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and trade with Cuba, Coleman splits with Bush...

...They are Bush's kind of people...

...He credits Bush with "energizing Republicans" in Missouri, but insists that "at the end of the day all politics is local...

...He campaigned relentlessly for them, raising money, speaking at rallies, and stirring a large Republican voter turnout...