While the American people are somewhat mercurial and reacted emotionally in punishing the house Republicans for Bush’s misdeeds in Iraq, Bush responded yesterday with great political skill yesterday by making a moderate and conciliatory speech and, more important, by taking away one of the most salient gripes of people across the political spectrum: the continued tenure of Donald Rumsfeld.
This is the Kaiser Soze move! Instead of enduring weeks of Democratic carping that “Rumsfeld. Must. Go,” he took him and the issue off the table. Now the Democrats must propose a real agenda. This move lets Bush table Iraq for at least a few weeks while the new Defense Secretary proposes plans and settles into office. Finally, the move makes Bush the main news item of the day by noon EST after a major Democratic victory. Of course, Bush and Rumsfeld have bungled Iraq to an unimaginable degree and have responded to developments with obstinacy and the denial of reality. They, and not the house Republicans, deserved to be fired. But this was the only means voters had, and the next two years should prove interesting and even more dreadful in some respects. Give-aways will continue, but now we’ll be dealing with maudlin defenses of school lunch programs and section eight housing vouchers. Worst of all, the Democrats will likely push for a more extreme amnesty proposal than Bush’s, and Bush will try to present himself as the great compromiser in selling our country’s future out to a third world scenario of racial conflict, imported poverty, and declining skills.
It is understandable the Republicans lost. They drifted from their core principles. They cut taxes while raising spending. They abjured their duty of oversight on the war in Iraq. They were quite naturally associated with Bush and his failures. Finally, Republicans were increasingly caught up in petty scandals and disgusting double-standards. That all said, Bush has shown he knows how to switch gears in dealing with a Democratic Congress, revealing that much of his obstinacy from the last few years came from the umbrella of a Republican-controlled legislature. Of course, a President must always be selling, explaining his policies and pursuing policies that make sense, particularly if they are counter-intuitive or require a long-term commitment. It remains to be seen if he can do that going forward, but his acumen on day one in dealing with a legislature now controlled by the Democrats suggest that his purely political skills should not be underestimated.
Subscribe To This Feed
