From today's New York Times editorial section:
February 18, 2001
LIBERTIES
Déjà Dubya
By MAUREEN DOWD
ASHINGTON — Nothing personal,
Saddam. Just bidness. Bush family
bidness.
Grab the cannoli, drop the bombs.
While Bill Clinton is chaotically smashing his
legacy, W. is methodically renovating his dad's legacy.
Keen to protect the family honor, the new president is going back, piece
by piece, working to sand away the scars of Bush I.
Amid the Republican hosannas for 43, it is easy to forget the Republican
raspberries for 41 when he lost the White House eight years ago.
The name Bush was anathema to the right for years, until the Lewinsky
scandal sparked Bush nostalgia.
Thursday night, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in
Virginia, the audience was giddy at every mention of the Bush
restoration, and squealed and aimed cameras at Dick Cheney as though
he were Jennifer Lopez. (D.Che)
Outside the banquet hall, a booth was plastered with bumper stickers
alarmed about "The Homosexual Agenda" — "Recruit Children,"
"Destroy the Boy Scouts," "Take Over Public Schools."
Under the heading "Devaluing Life," were stickers shrieking about the
"Morning-After Pill," "Baby Body Parts for $ale" and "Stem-Cell
Research."
Inside, over steaks and wine, Charlton Heston, head of the N.R.A., was
offering the new president (back in the White House) advice in the voices
of some of his movie characters.
As Long John Silver of "Treasure Island": "Aye, the battle was nip and
tuck, we was all a-swearin' blue fire, but ya didn't falter. You ran our
colors back up the mast — eight long years now that fine emblem's been
missin'. But let down your mates, sir, and you'll face the plank."
As Bill Tyler of "The Mountain Men": "Keep your powder dry, Mr.
President. Take a deep seat in the saddle and don that faraway look that
marks a true man of vision."
As Col. George Taylor of "Planet of the Apes," Mr. Heston brandished a
banana and advised: "Please, no monkeying around, Mr. President. We
had enough of that during the last administration."
W.'s political career rose from the ashes of his father's '92 loss. He
learned from his father's mistakes. Now he wants to correct them.
If the Bush name was tarnished by leaving Saddam in power, W. can fix
that. He has brought together the Bush I players Cheney, Powell and
Rice to see if that unfinished war needs to be finished. (Not to mention
the pleasure of payback for Saddam's assassination plot against Poppy in
'93.)
If the Bush name was tarnished by breaking the no-new-taxes pledge in
an honorable effort to cut the deficit, W. can fix that. He can ignore the
deficit and cut taxes.
If the Bush name was tarnished by the airy-fairy Points of Light (Pints of
Lite) office, W. can fix that. He instituted a faith-based social services
program so serious it is a threat to the separation of church and state.
If the Bush name was tarnished by schizophrenic attempts to be
Greenwich blue blood and Midland barbed wire, with Maine weekends
colliding with invocations of pork rinds and "Hee Haw," W. can fix that.
He can stay home on the Crawford range.
If the Bush name was tarnished by a recession that Mr. Clinton took
credit for vanquishing, W. can fix that. He is blaming Mr. Clinton for the
slowdown, so he can get credit for the eventual recovery.
If the Bush name was tarnished by association with the name Quayle, W.
can fix that by associating with the name Cheney.
If the Bush name was tarnished by a lame attempt to be the Education
President, W. can fix that with a dedicated attempt to be the Education
President.
If the Bush name was tarnished with conservatives who thought the family
more Rockefeller than Reagan, W. can fix that by modeling himself on
Reagan. With appointments like John Ashcroft and Gale Norton, he is
dancing with the ones who brung him.
If the Bush name was tarnished with oilmen friends by a decision to limit
offshore drilling, W. can fix that by pushing to open the Arctic refuge and
other areas to exploration.
If the Bush name was tarnished by "Don't cry for me, Argentina"
Bushspeak, that fractured syntax that could render the Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band into "the Nitty Ditty Nitty Gritty Great Bird," well, W. can't fix
everything. |
