Recent history tells us that presidents routinely run into trouble in their second terms, and, particularly once would-be successors hit the campaign trail, incumbents start to feel the pressure of being a “lame duck.”
But when the reflexively-right-wing American Spectator says Bush is overseeing a “dead agenda,” one can’t help but hear quacking in the background. (via Demagogue)
[A]t this stage of the game, barring some imaginative political moves that bear some resemblance to the Bush Administration circa 2002, Republicans on Capitol Hill and even some longtime Bush team members in various Cabinet level departments say this Administration is done for.
“You run down the list of things we thought we could accomplish and you have to wonder what we thought we were thinking,” says a Bush Administration member who joined on in 2001. “You get the impression that we’re more than listless. We’re sunk.”
Too pessimistic? Maybe not. Rumors are flying through various departments of longtime senior Bush loyalists looking to jump, but with few opportunities in the private sector to make the jump look like anything more than desperation. Almost daily, complaints from Cabinet level Departments come in to the White House about lack of communication coordination on even basic policy matters.
“What happened was that some of the best people who were working in the Administration during the first term, but who weren’t necessarily Bush campaign members or weren’t particularly close to the White House, jumped when they saw opportunities being filled by under-qualified but more politically connected people,” says a current Administration senior staffer in a Cabinet department. “In this department we lost three quarters of the people who should have been encouraged to stay, and most of them left simply because they had received no indication they would be considered for better or different opportunities. And many of these folks would have stayed.”
This last point is of particular importance. The Bush gang, at least in the first term, had some qualified officials in key positions. We’re not talking about household names, but just competent bureaucrats with experience in their fields, keeping the machinery of government in motion. But as the Spectator noted, they’re leaving.
What’s left is an administration dominated by cronyism, at FEMA, at the Treasury, in the West Wing, everywhere. It’s an important reminder — this administration can, and probably will, get even worse when it comes to its ability to actually govern.