House Republicans are increasingly vocal about their differences with President Bush and their newfound affection for GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). 

The latest split between House Republicans and Bush came with Wednesday’s vote on a massive housing rescue bill. Many Republicans are upset that Bush rescinded his veto threat of the costly housing measure earlier in the day. House GOP leaders say that reversal undermined their negotiations with Democrats and weakened their attempts to provide more controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“I told President Bush we would sustain the veto [if we had more time to impact negotiations on the bill],” Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told a group of reporters at a breakfast sponsored by the <em>Christian Science Monitor.</em> “But [Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson] thought it needed to be done.”

The No. 2 Republican in the House echoed statements Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and several rank-and-file members made Wednesday after the vote. 

“We missed a huge opportunity to reform [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac],” Blunt said. “I think we ensured that the same kind of housing crisis will happen again.”

The $4 billion provided in block grants to states and localities to purchase homes facing foreclosure was a major mistake, he contended, because it encouraged banks to foreclose on properties rather than giving them incentives to help homeowners keep them.

“There is no worse owner of houses than local government,” he said.

Blunt labeled the new housing trust fund the “Trust Barney Fund,” referring to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who spearheaded negotiations on the bill in the House. Blunt said the increase in the size of jumbo loans to $625,000 has the potential to “create a jumbo problem.”

When asked about the split with Bush, Blunt said there have been numerous differences between House Republicans and the administration over the years.

“We’ve had more creative tension than many give us credit for,” he said. “We often did not wind up where the president wanted us to be.”

Even so, Blunt acknowledged that Bush can be helpful to House Republicans in certain competitive races around the country, noting that just last week he traveled to Georgia’s 8th district to help out Rick Goddard, a retired U.S. Air Force major running against Democratic Rep. Jim Marshall.

But he saved his highest praise for McCain and his efforts to help Republicans retain their majority in the past three election cycles.

When asked if McCain was trying to run away from House Republicans' and Bush’s record, Blunt retorted: “Well, we’re not running away from him.”

Blunt credited McCain with providing the ground support that helped House Republicans hold on to the majority in 2000, after McCain’s failed presidential campaign.

On the eve of the 2006 election, Blunt said McCain had traveled to roughly three dozen districts in the last 72 hours.

“We nominated the guy who is most likely to be helpful to us in this type of environment,” Blunt said, acknowledging that the Republican brand has been tarnished in recent years.

The minority leader also took several swipes at Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) trip this week to Afghanistan and Iraq. He argued that Obama was foolish to highlight what Blunt regarded as his weakness — foreign policy — and would likely come to regret statements he made during the trip, especially regarding the effectiveness of last year’s troop surge.

“He said that the surge really didn’t matter,” Blunt said.

Democrats’ decision to hail Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s backing of a troop withdrawal timeline similar to Obama’s is ironic, Blunt said, considering that Democrats had previously spent months deriding him as a hopeless bungler.

“Suddenly Maliki becomes the oracle on what should happen in Iraq?” Blunt asked. “His credibility was created by the surge itself.”

In the end, Blunt predicted Obama would have the same hard time “closing” the general election as he did the Democratic primary because voters would prefer the “tested” McCain who is “ready to be president.”