Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow spoke to the American Magazine Conference, sharing his perspective on the media. Nothing terribly exciting, but I couldn’t help but love the way Snow described the White House’s decision-making process. (via D. Froomkin)
“You don’t see it but there’s a process where everything gets discussed, and there are some raging arguments…. It’s not the case that something is always handed in a neat little bundle to the leader of the free world. He’s gotta make some choices….When people look back at this White House, they’re gonna find its one that had a lot of intellectual vigor.”
Um, Tony? When people look back at this White House, the very last thing anyone will think is that the Bush gang took “intellectual vigor” seriously. There’s a reason “Bush’s Bubble” became such a scrutinized phenomenon — the president surrounded himself with people who would tell him what he wants to hear, hoping to avoid anything even resembling “intellectual vigor.”
Tony Snow may have forgotten the examples — or, more likely, he hopes we have — but there’s no shortage of evidence to refute his argument. Consider this gem, for example.
It’s a standing joke among the president’s top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States…. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty.
An intellectually-vigorous environment is filled with debate. Snow neglected to mention that if you’re on the “wrong” side, the president doesn’t want to talk you anymore.
I’m also reminded of a Time interview with a “youngish” White House aide, described as a Bush favorite, who said, “The first time I told him he was wrong, he started yelling at me. Then I showed him where he was wrong, and he said, ‘All right. I understand. Good job.’ He patted me on the shoulder. I went and had dry heaves in the bathroom.”
There’s also Blake Gottesman, the president’s “body guy,” who stuck close behind Bush for 14 to 18 hours a day before recently stepping down to go to college. Gottesman recently offered an interesting perspective into Bush’s temperament.
On the road [Gottesman will] crack a joke if Bush is getting tense.
“If the aide looks nervous, the President will think there’s something to be nervous about,” Gottesman, who is intensely private even for a Bushie, tells TIME in a rare interview. “So you look calm even when everything is going wrong.”
It was probably just an off-hand comment, but this struck me as a helpful peek into the president’s personality. No matter what the circumstances, Bush, who is apparently far more sensitive than he lets on, wants those around him to appear relaxed, even when they’re not, because our delicate president might otherwise get flustered.
Puttng these qualities together, the president doesn’t want to hear bad news, equates dissent with disloyalty, bullies people who suggest he may be wrong, and wants people around him to “look calm,” even when the circumstances don’t warrant it.
And yet, when people look back at this White House, “they’re gonna find its one that had a lot of intellectual vigor”? No, when they look back, they’re going to remember John DiIulio’s quote: “There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you’ve got is everything — and I mean everything — being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”