The ongoing desire in Republican circles to find explanations for Bush’s recent “difficulties” has led to a new political parlor game of sorts: find the scapegoat. Failures simply can’t be the president’s fault, so at this point, it’s simply a matter of finding the responsible party.
“The staff” seems to be a leading contender.
Conservatives chafing at President Bush’s Hurricane Katrina spending plan and depressed with his low poll numbers are beginning to blame his top staff for moving too slowly to reverse the slide. Indeed, some suggest that the president needs to bring in new top staff to invigorate his administration.
“He needs a new group of people with energy and ideas around him,” says a GOP strategist with ties to the White House. “They’re like a dying cellphone battery.”
Scapegoat-nominee number two? The First Lady.
A top Republican close to the White House since the earliest days said the absence of a “reelection target” and pressure from first lady Laura Bush and others to soften his second-term tone conspired to temper Bush’s swagger well before Katrina hit…. Since the election, this official said, White House aides reported that Laura Bush was among those counseling Bush to change his cowboy image during the final four years.
In other words, to hear Republican critics tell it, Bush has surrounded himself with burned-out lackeys with no new ideas and a wife who’s pressuring him to be more wimpy.
This is why Bush’s approval ratings have tanked? Call it a hunch, but I suspect it has a little more to do with a disastrous war, a tragic response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush’s Social Security fiasco, and lingering doubts about the health of the national economy.
That said, if Republican insiders want to target each other with attacks and innuendo, it’s fine with me.