The return of “Triangulation”

There was something oddly troubling about today’s New York Times report about Bush acknowledging the paltry federal budget for domestic security. For a while, Carpetbagger couldn’t put his finger on it, but then ABC News’ The Note spelled it out for me.

The article is alarming in and of itself. Federal funding to protect Americans against domestic terrorist attacks is simply insufficient. Democratic lawmakers have been screaming about this for months; Sen. Hillary Clinton, in particular, has taken a leadership role on the issue.

“In a speech here to the National Governors Association, where governors expressed deep concern about their ability to pay for the equipment and training needed to prepare for a terrorist attack, Mr. Bush said he was ‘disappointed’ with the Republican-authored spending package because it had failed to provide adequate money for local counterterrorism programs,” the Times reported. “And he said that Congress was to blame.

“In remarks that struck some in the audience as unusually sharp given that both houses of Congress are controlled by the president’s party, Mr. Bush said that Congress ‘did not respond to the $3.5 billion we asked for — they not only reduced the budget that we asked for, they earmarked a lot of the money,'” the article continued.

Carpetbagger’s first reaction was noting that Bush will sell out anyone he can to advance his political agenda, even his loyal GOP congressional allies.

The second reaction was Bush has a funny way of symbolizing a new “Era of Responsibility.” The president will literally blame anyone for anything; the buck always stops anywhere but with him. Slow economy? Clinton’s fault. Huge deficit? Osama bin Laden’s fault. The U.N. is unraveling? France’s fault. Not enough money to protect Americans on U.S. soil? Congressional Republicans’ fault.

But it was this last point that was unsettling. The Note nailed it with one word: Triangulation.

Political junkies and readers of Dick Morris will remember that Bill Clinton, in the wake of the disastrous 1994 congressional elections, took Morris’ advice and began campaigning against both parties in Congress, holding himself out as a better, more pragmatic, alternative. The strategy — called triangulation — drove the left crazy, but it worked, particularly as then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became the least popular politician in America.

By blaming his own party in Congress for failing to spend enough on domestic security, Karl Rove, I mean, President Bush is following Clinton’s playbook nicely. “Gee, governors, I really wanted to give you more money to protect the citizenry,” Bush effectively said to the NGA, “but those mean other Republicans wouldn’t let me.”

This isn’t the first time Bush has toyed with this strategy, but it is the first time he’s used it as president. Sure, as The Note mentions, Rove recently promised his GOP friends on the Hill he wouldn’t triangulate, but this White House cares little for keeping promises. If Bush can hang DeLay, Hastert, and Frist out to dry to win re-election, he will. Over the next year and a half, be sure to watch for similar tactics as part of a broader strategy.