We saw this coming, but I was a little surprised at how fast it happened.
The Bush White House on a federal tobacco buyout, in early May:
“They’ve got the quota system in place — the allotment system — and I don’t think that needs to be changed,” Bush said.
The Bush White House on the buyout, four weeks later:
In an election-year switch, the Bush administration is willing to consider multibillion-dollar legislation to end the government’s Depression-era tobacco program, congressional Republicans said Thursday.
The Bush White House on the buyout, over the weekend:
The Republican House leadership attached a controversial $9.6 billion tobacco farmers’ relief bill to essential tax legislation yesterday, a step designed to quickly pass a long-stalled measure that is a high political priority in tobacco-growing states.
The bill would pay for the buyout of the crop quotas, which control how much tobacco farmers can raise, with existing excise tax revenue over five years. It would phase out the government-run quota system in effect since the 1930s.
The move was hailed yesterday by Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.), who sponsored the bill and said the White House helped write it. (emphasis added)
The Washington Post, reporting on the development, said, “The Bush administration’s willingness to support a tobacco quota buyout represents something of a turnaround.” Something of a turnaround? If Kerry had done this (or Gore, or Clinton), would the paper have been so generous in its description?
And speaking of Bush flip-flops, my friend Phil noted that the Boston Globe had a terrific column today about this very topic.
Bush-Cheney team likes to say president is “steadfast.” And John Kerry is “flip-flopper.” But Senator Kerry is bolted to floor compared to Bush. President Bush is no more steadfast than Tony Soprano is faithful.
The Globe’s Dan Payne caught a few flip-flop gems that I hadn’t thought about in a while, including:
Bush called Osama number one priority. “There’s an old poster out West that says, ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.’ . . . The most important thing is to find Osama bin Laden. It’s our Number One priority. We will not rest until we have found him.” (Sept. 13 and 16, 2001.)
Now Bush doesn’t care about him. “I don’t know where he is. I have no idea and I really don’t care. It’s not that important.” (March 13, 2002.)
Payne concludes:
Against nation-building, then for it. Found WMD, then lost them. Against McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, then signed it into law. Tariffs? Not gonna have ’em; puts ’em on steel, then lifts ’em. Mocks Al Gore’s idea for hybrid fuel car; calls for $1.3 billion to develop one. For extending ban on assault weapons in 2001; now against it.
I’m glad someone in the media finally noticed.