And more than 80 House Republicans today asked Bush to appoint Mr. Kemp as a domestic policy czar who could "declare war on our domestic ills."

He also warned Americans against expecting too much from their government, preaching personal responsibility and a smaller federal bureaucracy, even as he criticised the Republicans for refusing to harness the power of government to cure the nation's domestic ills.

The Dream Ticket also would give greater credence to the Democrats' certain charge that Mr. Bush has no interest in or program to cure the nation's domestic ills.

In the very short run, the gulf intervention has clearly rescued President Bush and his party from public discontent over the economy and other domestic ills.

In sharply critical terms, the Americans said China was too consumed by domestic economic ills to make required concessions such as reducing tariffs and opening more areas of its economy to foreign investors.

This would be a tidy sum for reducing the deficit, aiding valued allies or fighting domestic ills.

"We must declare war on our domestic ills," the lawmakers wrote.

But after detailing a long list of domestic and regional ills caused by the United States, he ventured that it was time to retire the past.

And Japan has also concentrated on its domestic economic ills, which were the primary focus of Mr. Koizumi's talks with Mr. Bush.

It might serve as a minor monument to the way in which a meddling Federal Government, in the view of governors and mayors, often frustrates local efforts to address many of the nation's urgent domestic ills.