Karl Rove chatted with Rush Limbaugh the other day, and the far-right blowhard asked the far-right operative how Bush and his team deal with all the criticism directed at the White House. Rove said:
“Rush, you ignore it. I mean, if you have to wake up in the morning to be validated by the editorial page of the New York Times, you got a pretty sorry existence. So the best thing you could do is just ignore it, plow on, stay focused. The president is very good about saying, ‘Look, we came here for a reason. We have an obligation on the country,’ and press on by it. I’ll be hyperventilating about the latest attack on him by somebody, and he’ll say, ‘Don’t worry. History will get it right and we’ll both be dead.’ So it’s a good, healthy attitude about how to take it.”
That sounds fairly reasonable. These guys have a job to do and they can’t get caught up in overreacting to every piece of criticism out there. According to Bush, he doesn’t even read newspapers, so he’s blissfully unaware of what the criticism is all about. Ideally, these guys would have some sense of why the electorate is so frustrated with them, but if the president and his team “stay focused” on their weighty responsibilities, that’s certainly a good thing.
Except, apparently Rove’s healthy attitude is a sham. Bush is Mr. Sensitive — at least when dealing with his fashion sense.
What really gets George W. Bush riled up? Calling him a fashion victim.
Last week, Marques Harper of the Austin American- Statesman wrote a short piece about the president’s sartorial style on his Texas ranch, where Bush is spending a two-week vacation. The article was reprinted Tuesday in a Waco, Tex., paper, and the leader of the free world was not pleased.
Harper received a phone call that morning from White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino, who, Harper told friends, said the president read the article and was unhappy about the way he was portrayed.
I wish this was a joke. The president who tells Rove not to worry about critical articles in the media is worried about what the Austin American-Statesman is saying about his clothes? What happened to Bush being very good about saying, “Look, we came here for a reason. We have an obligation on the country”? What about the “healthy attitude”?
And what, pray tell, did this offensive article say? Not much:
“The president has two distinct looks when he’s in Texas: the ranch-hand man and the crisp appearance of a ranch owner. In recent months, with his sliding popularity, he’s opted to look more like ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ than a sweaty, tough ranch hand.” In the piece, an image consultant offered that Bush needed to “step it up” to keep his “bravado image” on the ranch.
That was enough for the spokesperson for the President of the United States to call a style reporter for a mid-size newspaper to complain, and to convey the disappointment of the leader of the free world.
I’ve heard rumors that some people find Bush charming. Policies aside, he’s easy to get along with and has a warm personality.
I don’t buy it. Incidents like this one lead me to suspect the president is an irritable man-child with a fragile ego and an immature temperament.