Despite his low approval ratings, President Bush will still be welcome on the campaign trail for Republican congressmen in 2008, said Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Bush will offer a substantial boost to many House and Senate candidates representing solidly Republican districts and other targeted areas, said Cole (Okla.). At the same time, he may be less effective with regard to the GOP presidential nominee, who will be trying to establish his own message.

“I can think of a lot of districts in America that I would love to put George Bush in,” Cole added. “I tell you what, he’s still pretty popular in Georgia, he’s still pretty popular in Kansas, he’s still pretty popular in districts we’re interested in in California.”

Bush’s national approval ratings have languished in the low 30s for a year. Cole, however, said that they could start to rise in Republican-friendly districts, “where people begin to think … ‘I didn’t like this or that, but … he’s kept us safe … he’s trying to do the right thing.’ ”

Indeed, Bush seems open to stumping for Republicans in his final year in office. He will appear at his first 2008 fundraiser in Missouri, where Rep. Sam Graves (R) faces a tough reelection fight against former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes (D). And Bush last week endorsed Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, who faces a competitive three-way primary next month.

The moderate Maryland Republican voted for the Democrats’ Iraq spending bill that would have set a timeline for troops to come home.

Bush has been an aggressive campaigner in the past. He stumped for endangered Republicans in Kansas, Nebraska and Florida in the final days of the 2006 midterm elections. Despite his party’s heavy losses that year, he helped congressional Republicans rake in $15.4 million at their annual fundraising dinner last June, which was far less than the $27 million haul he helped bring in the year before. And late last year he attended fundraisers for Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) and the Texas Republican Party.

Democrats are counting on the Bush factor to backfire. Barnes highlighted the Bush fundraiser in Missouri in an appeal for Democratic donations to the campaign website.

“If people don’t think they’re better off than they were seven years ago [when both Graves and Bush were sent to Washington], Barnes is going be the recipient of that unhappiness,” said Steve Glorioso, a Barnes spokesman.

Doug Thornell, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that the mood of the country has shifted — a point that is reinforced by the number of Democratic voters who have already turned out for early primaries. Republicans in Congress will suffer as they did in 2006 for backing the Bush administration’s policies and working to stall Democratic efforts on Capitol Hill, he said.

“Given the current political environment, voters rewarding the GOP for blocking positive change on so many fronts seems highly unlikely,” Thornell said.

For their part, Republicans said that Democrats would be unwise to continue their strategy of linking GOP candidates to Bush and his policy in Iraq, which worked during the midterm elections.

 “In Republican areas, with the surge working, with the president promoting an economic stimulus plan, now it looks like the Democrats have failed in Congress,” said John McLaughlin, whose firm is polling for both Barnes and Gilchrest.

McLaughlin added that the president should push for bipartisan measures, like his proposed economic stimulus package, and focus on tax breaks and the economy, issues that he believes Republicans can win on.

But some Republicans could be less receptive of Bush. E.J. Pipkin, a Maryland state senator, is challenging Gilchrest, who is seeking a 10th term, in February’s Republican primary. Pipkin said that he respects the president, but noted that his more conservative record was a better fit for the state’s heavily Republican 1st district. He cited Bush’s more lenient position on illegal immigration, which Gilchrest shares, as proof.

“It is not unexpected that a sitting president would endorse an incumbent congressman,” Pipkin said in a statement. “I am sure the president took into account Congressman Gilchrest’s support of amnesty for illegal aliens.”

The last two presidents who entered election years as lame ducks took two different approaches to campaigning, said Martha Joynt Kumar, a Towson University political science professor. Ronald Reagan, sullied by the Iran-Contra scandal, directed his attention to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Bill Clinton, on the heels of his impeachment, also turned to foreign policy, attempting to broker a Middle East peace deal, but also campaigned vigorously for Democratic incumbents in Congress. Clinton avoided appearing with then-Vice President Al Gore in swing states, but stumped for Gore in heavily African-American districts.

Bush is more likely to follow Clinton’s path, Kumar said.

“He likes politics,” she said. “It’s just a question of whether people thought he could help them.”