Yet More on Bush's Friday Sept. 15 Tantrum

After a cynical search by Karl Rove for some campaign themes in 2000, George W. Bush started his presidency with what turned out to be an empty slogan: "I'm a uniter, not a divider." First, it was Democrats, not Bush who sought a bipartisan spirit in Washington after the contentious 2000 election but Bush in a matter of months made it clear he had very little interest in bipartisanship except as a public relations tool.

Then 9/11 happened, and instinctively the whole nation came together as one and much of the rest of the world made sympathetic and conciliatory gestures towards the United States after Bush's clumsy first months of cowboy diplomacy. But, by January 2002, Bush was once again playing to his base at the same time he was turning even more rightward towards a confrontational foreign policy. Not only has Bush not united our country while politicizing once bipartisan issues, he has also divided us from the rest of the world in such a way that the world hardly recognizes who we are anymore. Here's an article by Robert Parry as carried by Truthout:

George W. Bush's Sept. 15 outburst - threatening to stop interrogating terror suspects if Congress doesn't let him revise the Geneva Conventions to permit coercive techniques - is part of a pattern of petulance that dates back to even before the 9/11 attacks but has resurfaced as Bush faces new challenges to his authority.

In summer 2001, less than six months into his presidency while confronting congressional obstacles to his domestic program, Bush told followers that he was ready to "go back to Crawford" if he didn't get his way on legislation.

That threat came after Sen. Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Republican, joined with the Democrats to give them narrow control of the Senate in mid-2001. Bush also was facing defeat on a patients' bill of rights.

In a meeting with congressional allies, "Bush appeared to draw a line in the sand when he indicated he always could return to Crawford, Texas, if the liberal health juggernaut grinds him down," wrote right-wing columnist Robert D. Novak. [Washington Post, July 5, 2001]

Besides the patients' bill of rights, Bush found himself battling congressional momentum in favor of new campaign-finance restrictions.

In the context of Bush fighting those two popular bills, Los Angeles Times political writer Ronald Brownstein also picked up word of Bush issuing a "back to Crawford" threat, this one recounted by a GOP lobbyist close to the administration.

Bush "continues to send a signal that, 'I'm going to do what I want to do, and if nobody likes it, I'm going to go back to Crawford'," Brownstein wrote, quoting the lobbyist. [Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2001]

Naturally, with the help of Karl Rove, Republicans tried to spin Bush's immature petulance but Bush has shown many of us early on that his sense of self-importance and self-entitlement far exceeded his willingness to compromise or do what was best for the nation. There's a truism about Bush that was true long before he became president: he doesn't play well with others.

It's too bad the voters didn't give Bush what he wanted in 2004—a ticket back to Crawford— but it's time now to bring Bush under control. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to restrain a president they know perfectly well is thinking about starting yet a third war. And it's time for the media to take seriously the fact that the current administration is broken and dysfunctional.