As far as the Bush White House is concerned, the two words of the day are “listen” and “advice.” Given what we know, and what we’re hearing, both appear disingenuous.
President Bush on Monday opened three days of intensive consultations on Iraq, saying the United States and countries across the Middle East have a vital stake in helping the fragile government in Baghdad succeed.
Bush went to the State Department to review diplomatic and political options — the latest in a series of consultations that dominate his agenda as he seeks a new course in Iraq.
After his State Department meetings, Bush offered reporters one of the more garbled run-on sentences I’ve seen in a while: “There is no question we’ve got to make sure that the State Department and the Defense Department — the efforts and their recommendations are closely coordinated, so that when I do speak to the American people, they will know that I’ve listened to all aspects of government and that the way forward is the way forward to achieve our objective: to succeed in Iraq.” For a 64-word sentence, the president didn’t say much.
Nevertheless, it’s apparently all part of a new effort, shaped by White House Chief of Staff John Josh Bolten, to characterize Bush as someone who’s actually listening when it comes to Iraq policy.
The challenge for Bush’s team [after the Iraq Study Group’s report was released] was to make the president appear as though he were taking the release of the report seriously, without necessarily embracing its conclusions. In the days following the report’s release, Bush the Decider transformed himself into Bush the Listener. Usually prickly with war critics — on the rare occasions he spoke to them at all — the president now invited them in from the cold and kept quiet. […]
“The change in Bush’s approach had its beginnings well before [James A. Baker III’s] group put pen to paper. It came about in part because of a slow, careful effort by Bush’s closest aides — under the direction of chief of staff Josh Bolten — to convince the president that he had to listen to different voices on Iraq, and ultimately change direction.
Except — and here’s the key — it’s all for show.
The New York Daily News reported over the weekend that those close to the president describe him as “still resolutely defiant, convinced history will ultimately vindicate him.”
Outside Republican sources report that except for isolated pockets of realism, the West Wing bunker hasn’t yet absorbed Bush’s diminished power.
“The White House is totally constipated,” a former aide complained. “There’s not enough adult leadership, and the 30-year-olds still think it’s 2000 and they’re riding high.”
One White House assistant insisted to a friend last week that the election was merely a repudiation of Bush’s execution, not his policies.
“They don’t get it,” a GOP mandarin snapped. “The Iraq report was their brass ring to pivot and salvage the last two years, and they didn’t grab it.”
Looking over news accounts today, there seems to be a sense this time is different. Bush wouldn’t be seeking out all of this advice if he didn’t want a range of competing ideas to consider. It took nearly four years, but the White House is ready to change something.
But none of this is true. Bush thinks he’s Truman, his aides think changing course would “undermine the whole premise of his presidency,” and the Bubble remains very much intact.
Consider a story in the latest Time magazine, recounting the efforts — before the commission was approved by Congress — of three supporters to enlist Condoleezza Rice to win the administration’s approval for the panel. Here is how Time reports it:
“As the trio departed, a Rice aide asked one of her suitors not to inform anyone at the Pentagon that chairmen had been chosen and the study group was moving forward. If Rumsfeld was alerted to the study group’s potential impact, the aide said, he would quickly tell Cheney, who could, with a few words, scuttle the whole thing. Rice got through to Bush the next day, arguing that the thing was going to happen anyway, so he might as well get on board. To his credit, the President agreed.”
The article treats this exchange in a matter-of-fact way, but, what it suggests is completely horrifying. Rice apparently believed that Bush would simply follow the advice of whoever he spoke with. Therefore the one factor determining whether Bush would support the commission was whether Cheney or Rice managed to get to him first.
Only 770 days to go….