Sunday, March 12, 2006
(3:15 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Chronicling Bush's Transition from Cowboy to Creepy Aunt
As Mr. Bush struggles yet again to change public opinion on Iraq, Republicans say there is no escaping the truth that the White House has careered from crisis to crisis in the second term and that the president has yet to develop a coherent agenda.Link.
Every development, they say, including Vice President Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a fellow hunter and the arrest on Thursday of Mr. Bush's former domestic policy adviser, Claude A. Allen, on theft charges, points to a White House that seems to be losing its once-vaunted discipline and control.
The ports deal was a case in point, they said. Even White House officials acknowledged that by the time a delegation of Congressional Republicans told Mr. Bush in the Oval Office on Thursday morning that it was a lost cause, Mr. Bush put up no fight.
By midafternoon, after the Dubai company had dropped out of the deal, the president just seemed relieved that the storm was over. In a gathering at the White House, Mr. Bush faked a playful punch at Representative Peter T. King, the New York Republican who led opposition to the deal, then pinched Mr. King's cheek. [emphasis added]
