Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush, beset by questions about his Iraq war strategy and authorization of domestic surveillance, is counterattacking with the argument that helped him win re-election in 2004: that he will do whatever is needed to forestall terrorism.

Yesterday, the president grasped the strands of three separate controversies -- the debate over Iraq, the congressional battle over renewal of the Patriot Act and his approval without court sanction of eavesdropping on U.S. citizens -- and wove them into a single theme. All three, he said, were really about protecting the country against terrorism.

``I want to make sure the American people understand that we have an obligation to protect you, and we're doing that,'' Bush said during a news conference. ``I want to assure the American people that I am doing what you expect me to do.''

In making this argument, Bush is seeking to regain the initiative after a lengthy period when he was frequently on the defensive and his standing with the public declined to the lowest point in his presidency before turning around in recent days.

``He has allowed his opponents to fill the vacuum, and now he's fighting back and articulating his philosophy in the broader war on terrorism,'' said Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a former adviser to the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. ``Perhaps it's because the 2006 elections are coming up, but he's clearly decided to do things differently and change the debate.''

An Impact

There's some evidence that Bush's counterattack, along with events such as Iraq's recent parliamentary elections, may be having an impact on the public.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll taken Dec. 15-18 and released yesterday showed his approval rating at 47 percent, an 8-point rise from a November survey. It found 46 percent approved of Bush's handling of Iraq -- a 10-point jump from November --and 65 percent said the U.S. was making progress in establishing a democratic government in Iraq, an 18-point increase.

While Bush's recent remarks have lifted public approval for his Iraq policy, a majority in most recent polls still disapprove. Now lawmakers are raising doubts about his tactics in the campaign against terrorism, particularly his decision to authorize domestic wiretaps on suspected terrorists without a warrant after Sept. 11.

`Trust Us'

``The White House's reaction has essentially been to say, `Our intentions are good, and therefore trust us,''' said Christopher Preble, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, research group in Washington that advocates limited government. ``The days of congressional deference on these kinds of things may be ending.''

The furor over the eavesdropping already has bled into the debate about renewing the Patriot Act, a law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks giving law enforcement broader authority to conduct wiretapping and review personal records. Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate are blocking an extension, trying to force revisions that they say would protect civil liberties.

Bush ``is a president, not a king,'' said Senator Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat and one of the leaders of the effort to change the act.

Affecting Alito?

The controversy also is seeping into other issues. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he will make the eavesdropping an issue at the confirmation hearings next month of Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel A. Alito Jr. In a letter, Specter told Alito to expect questions on how courts should review Bush's claim that Congress empowered him to order the wiretaps without warrants when it authorized the use of force to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today that he didn't expect the questions to delay confirmation, citing Specter's commitment to act by Jan. 20.

Senators from both parties are calling for congressional hearings into the surveillance. Democrats, including Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Tom Daschle, the party's former leader in the Senate, yesterday disputed Bush's contention that the administration had informed Congress about the eavesdropping and its justification.

One reason Bush is facing more resistance is that his credibility with the public has declined over the past year, in step with his approval ratings.

Trust

``His ratings for being trustworthy, which were his strong point for all of his first term, have tumbled rather substantially this year,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center in Washington.

In the new ABC/Washington Post poll, 49 percent said they viewed Bush as an honest and trustworthy leader. While that is an improvement over the 40 percent that held that view in November -- which was the low point of his presidency -- it is well below the 59 percent average in 11 polls during his first term.

Bruce Hoffman, an expert on terrorism and counter-terrorism at Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, California-based research organization, said Bush needs to offer ``some greater specificity'' on how the wiretaps have thwarted attacks if he wants to calm public anxiety about the secret program.

``If you just describe some of these incidents, that would assuage some of concerns,'' Hoffman said in an interview.

Bush declined to provide specifics at his news conference. ``I'm not going to talk about that, because it would help give the enemy notification and/or perhaps signal to them methods and uses and sources,'' he said.

Hoffman said Bush could provide examples without compromising sources and methods, as he did in October when he outlined 10 plots by al-Qaeda that were foiled by the U.S. and its allies. ``It serves the benefit of demonstrating clearly to the American people the stakes that are involved,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net; Brendan Murray in Washington at brmurray@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 20, 2005 10:48 EST