Newsweek’s Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe wrote a terrific cover story this week on my favorite subject, Bush’s “bubble.” There’s fodder here for a half-dozen blog posts, but I was struck by the article’s historical comparisons.
Sen. Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for example, has been in the Senate for 30 years and has worked with five presidents. Lugar is a conservative Republican, but he’s developed a reputation for his ability to work with Dems. Recently, Lugar told reporters that Bush needs to “have much more of a cadre of people in both houses, from both parties” visiting the White House “very frequently” so he can be informed and exposed to a variety competing ideas. Who did Lugar point to as a model for how it’s done? Bill Clinton. (This, of course, means Bush will reject the notion out of hand.)
But it’s not just Bush’s immediate predecessor that comes to mind.
Clearly, George W. Bush’s role model is not his father, who every week would ride down from the White House to the House of Representatives gymnasium, just to hear what fellows like Murtha were saying. Nor is the model John F. Kennedy, who during the Cuban missile crisis reached out to form an “ExCom” of present and past national-security officials, from both parties, to find some way back from the abyss short of war. Nor is it Franklin Roosevelt, who liked to create competition between advisers to find the best solution. Or Abraham Lincoln who, as historian Doris Kearns Goodwin writes in her new book, “Team of Rivals,” appointed his political foes to his cabinet.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it almost hilarious to imagine Bush following any of these examples in any way. He has his gut and his yes-men — why would he need to reach out to lawmakers, bi-partisan experts, and political opponents?
If you said, “Because it’d be good for the country and Bush would benefit from hearing diverse perspectives,” you now know why you’re not welcome at the Bush White House. Come to think of it, you’re not welcome at presidential events either.