And Democrats who voted for the [No Child Left Behind] law five years ago in the glow of post-September 11 bipartisanship are unlikely to do so again now that Bush has failed to deliver the hefty budget increases for education that they expected would accompany it. For the president to persuade a Democratic Congress to reauthorize No Child Left Behind without dismantling it, the bottom line may very well be the bottom line.

"The reason he's still relevant is money," said Michael Dannenberg, director of the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program. "If there were a lot of money put on the table with a Democratically controlled Congress, that would help grease the skids with the base on the left. Of course, it would antagonize the base on the right."

And Bush cannot alienate his base, where goodwill is in short supply after the immigration debacle...

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