USTIN, Texas - Governor George W. Bush returned home exhausted on Friday, ready for a two-day break with his wife and daughters and some time to reassess what happens next. When Bush leaves here this morning, one question will be at the forefront of Republican strategists' minds: Did anything change?
Over the weekend, at least, the Texas governor sent no signals that a major internal shakeup was taking place as a result of his surprising loss in the New Hampshire primary. He went running. He did some work. As the temperature rose into the mid-50s, he ''spent time with his family, visited his ranch, and went to church,'' according to spokesman Ari Fleischer.
Bush did hold several meetings with top aides, as most candidates for president do. But the true indication of how aggressively the Bush campaign is planning to shift gears is not expected to come into full view until today.
''He is recharged, and is ready to come charging out,'' Fleischer said.
With the campaign ready to release new TV advertisements in South Carolina, including one showing the handshake between Senator John S. McCain and Bush vowing not to run negative ads, Bush aides said the changes this week will be stylistic, not substantive.
Bush will keep to the core of his message - cutting taxes, reforming education - but will focus his attention on stopping what he feels are misrepresentations by McCain, his chief foe. In particular, Bush aides are outraged over McCain's charge that the Bush tax cut proposal would endanger Social Security, as well as a McCain ad that alleged only the Arizona Republican was qualified to lead the country.
''We're not going to let those kind of things go by,'' senior adviser Karl Rove said. ''We let them go by in New Hampshire and we suffered for it. We're going to aggressively set the record straight on those kind of issues in South Carolina.''
Even yesterday, McCain aides said they felt a difference.
According to McCain campaign spokesman Howard Opinsky, several college students in South Carolina contacted the McCain headquarters there saying they had received misleading phone calls from a polling firm in Houston. In what's known as a ''push poll,'' the caller inserts negative information about an opponent into what otherwise appears to be a voter survey.
Opinsky also cited reports, which surfaced in this week's issue of Time, that Bush was coordinating his advertising efforts with outside special interest groups, including the National Right to Life Committee and Americans for Tax Reform.
''There are direct attacks, personal attacks by surrogates, and now the documented evidence of coordinated efforts,'' said Opinsky.
The Bush campaign firmly denied employing the push-polling tactic.
Publicly, however, at least one Bush supporter took the gloves off. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the head of the committee that raises funds for GOP Senate candidates, yesterday accused McCain of hypocrisy in his campaign finance platform. ''He's the guy who's gotten more of his campaign funds in his campaign for president from Washington lobbyists and special interests than anyone else,'' McConnell said.
McConnell, a chief opponent of campaign finance reform, also homed in on a single campaign finance vote as evidence that McCain is working to hurt the Republican Party.
McCain, who has cast himself as an insurgent reformer with his campaign finance overhaul legislation in the US Senate, voted at one point against a provision that would have prevented labor unions from collecting workers' dues for political campaigns. McCain aides say he did so because the amendment was a poison pill designed to dissuade Democrats from voting in favor of an overall campaign finance bill. But McConnell said, ''Senator McCain voted with the labor bosses.''
Responded McCain spokesman Opinsky: ''I'd say there's a whole new campaigning philosophy at the Bush campaign, and it has nothing to do with the 11th Commandment,'' referring to the Ronald Reagan decree that members of the Republican Party not speak ill of other Republicans.
But Bush aides blamed McCain for turning the campaign negative.
That, at least, is what they intend to underscore in the new Bush ''handshake'' ad, which features the two men shaking hands, then turns to three McCain ads already on the air. Pointing out the negative tenor of those McCain ads is intended to ''remind voters the promise Senator McCain made,'' Bush spokesman Fleischer said.
