One of the real problems with being the most partisan President in decades is that after a time, members of the other side no longer trusts you, and are thus unwilling to help you destroy their party. Such is the case for George W. Bush as he seeks to privatize Social Security, as USA Today's Andrea Stone notes:

The debate over changing Social Security can be a mind-numbing actuarial exercise, with calculations and projections that reach into the trillions of dollars and unfold over decades. But for President Bush, the most important number right now might be one.

That's how many Democrats he needs - and still lacks - to claim that his plan is bipartisan.

"This can't be done without Democrats," says Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank here. "They need the political cover of both parties."

[...]

But some moderates who have voted at times with the president, such as Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, may be wary of crossing party lines again. Landrieu was one of nine Senate Democrats to vote for Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001. The next year, Republicans spent millions - unsuccessfully - to oust her.

Bush must have thought he was an extremely shrewd politician when he wooed Landrieu throughout 2001 and early 2002 before stabbing her in the back during the general election. Maybe such a blindly partisan move won't help him in the long run, though...