even his fellow republicans slapped that hand away. >> read my lips. >> convinced it was in the national interest to compromise, he cut spending and raising taxes. he broke major campaign pledge and then saw the deal shot down by house conservatives. a second attempt passed, but did not stop the recession in time. bush's nomination of clarence thomas to the u.s. supreme court provoked another acrimonious fight. democrats dug up claims of sexual harassment. >> this is a circus. it's a national disgrace. from my standpoint, as a black american, as far as i'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppety blacks. >> bush's approval rating, an unheard of 91% by the end of the gulf war, slowly eroded.