I thought today’s comic by Clay Bennett was great (from GoComics.com).
Tag Archives: Bush
Bush’s Reach, Bush’s Grasp
The New Yorker recently had an illuminating profile of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Beyond exploring how Bernanke’s Alan-Greenspan-hand-me-down, laissez faire philosophy contributed to our current recession (hey, we may yet get a Great Depression out of this after all!), the article presents this revealing account of Bernake’s first meeting with Bush.
In June 2005, Bernanke was sworn in at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. One of his first tasks was to deliver a monthly economics briefing to the President and the Vice-President. After he and Hubbard sat down in the Oval Office, President Bush noticed that Bernanke was wearing light-tan socks under his dark suit. “Where did you get those socks, Ben?” he asked. “They don’t match.” Bernanke didn’t falter. “I bought them at the Gap—three pairs for seven dollars,” he replied. During the briefing, which lasted about forty-five minutes, the President mentioned the socks several times.
The following month, Hubbard’s deputy, Keith Hennessey, suggested that the entire economics team wear tan socks to the briefing. Hubbard agreed to call Vice-President Cheney and ask him to wear tan socks, too. “So, a little later, we all go into the Oval Office, and we all show up in tan socks,” Hubbard recalled. “The President looks at us and sees we are all wearing tan socks, and he says in a cool voice, ‘Oh, very, very funny.’ He turns to the Vice-President and says, ‘Mr. Vice-President, what do you think of these guys in their tan socks?’ Then the Vice-President shows him that he’s wearing them, too. The President broke up.
This emphasis of propriety—something Bernanke dismissed earlier in the article as “signaling”—is the only thing Bush seemed to have a handle on during his eight years in office. Hell, about the only time he apologized was after needling a reporter for wearing sunglasses. The reporter turned out to be blind.
I guess that’s what you get when you elect the first M.B.A. President. We took a middle manager and made him the most powerful man in the world.
Planning for a Post-Bush Future
Mother Jones‘ September/October issue, “Exit Strategy: How to Fix a Post-Bush Nation,” offers a comprehensive breakdown of Bush-era bungling. Exploring topics ranging from executive power to domestic priorities, the magazine examines what went wrong (at no small length) and offers a primer on how the next President can recover from Bush administration misconduct and incompetence.
A few stories stood out as particularly relevant:
Jack Hitt’s “Pursuit of Habeas” outlines the origins of habeus corpus and details why the Bush detainment policy was counterproductive as well as illegal.
James K. Gailbraith’s “How to Burn the Speculators” shows how increasing deregulation of the financial industry, stretching back to Reagan, is tied to today’s financial meltdown. (McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm plays a leading role, but the blame is widely spread.)
Finally, “Bush’s Reign of Error: A Timeline,” provides a quick-hit summary of the 43rd President’s many lowlights. Looking back, the scope of his malfeasance is pretty breathtaking. Among other things, I’d forgotten that Henry Kissinger was initially selected to head the 9/11 commission.
Drill Baby Drill
From the New York Times: a sex, bribes, collusion and drugs scandal at the governmental department responsible for collecting money from oil companies:
As Congress prepares to debate expansion of drilling in taxpayer-owned coastal waters, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties has been caught up in a wide-ranging ethics scandal — including allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.
You have to read the whole story to get a full grasp of the piggishness, but one character who stood out was Gregory Smith, a director of the Denver office of the Minerals Management Service. As the Times details:
The report said that from April 2002 to June 2003, Mr. Smith improperly used his position with the royalty program to help a technical services firm seek deals with the same oil and gas companies. The services firm paid Mr. Smith more than $30,000 for asking the oil companies to hire it, the report said.
Mr. Smith requested and received approval to take on the outside work, but the report says he misled the office into thinking he would be performing technical consulting, rather than marketing the firm to companies with which he also conducted official business
The report accuses Mr. Smith of improperly accepting gifts from the oil and gas industry, of engaging in sex with two subordinates, and of using cocaine that he purchased from his secretary or her boyfriend several times a year between 2002 and 2005. He sometimes asked for the drugs and received them in his office during work hours, the report alleges.
The report also says that Mr. Smith lied to investigators about these and other incidents, and that he urged the two women subordinates to mislead the investigators as well.
But don’t worry–it’s not like he’ll face any repercussions for his actions.
[Smith and another worker] retired during the investigation, rendering them safe from any administrative punishment, and the Justice Department has declined to prosecute them on the charges suggested by the inspector general.
Bush Epitomizes the “Bad Boss”
I’m not familiar with the work of Bob Woodward. I’m know the Watergate myth. I was dismayed to read of the hagiography of his early Bush books, and I’m happy to hear his access has turned to more critical ends, but I haven’t read anything he’s written.
That aside, Woodward’s most recent book excerpt in the Washington Post establishes the President as a clueless, petulant bullier who wouldn’t be qualified to manage an Arby’s night shift. He is the embodiment of the bad boss, the personification of someone with the keys to lead but no idea where to drive except into a brick wall.
David Satterfield, a senior diplomat known as “the Human Talking Point,” had watched the president up close for several years from his vantage point as Iraq coordinator for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Satterfield had reached some highly critical conclusions not shared by Rice: If Bush believed something was right, he believed it would succeed. Its very rightness ensured ultimate success. Democracy and freedom were right. Therefore, they would ultimately win out.
Bush, Satterfield observed, tolerated no doubt. His words and actions constantly reminded those around him that he was in charge. He was the decider. As a result, he often made biting jokes or asides to colleagues that Satterfield found deeply wounding and cutting.
Bush had little patience for briefings. “Speed it up. This isn’t my first rodeo,” he would often say to those making presentations. It was difficult to brief him because he would interject his own narrative, questions or off-putting jokes. Discussions rarely unfolded in a logical, comprehensive fashion.
“Speed it up. This isn’t my first rodeo.” I imagine it was the same tone as, “All right. You’ve covered your ass now.“