Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (1318)	1/18/2001 1:56:56 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

January 18, 2001 Washington's Guessing Game Editorial from The New York Times January 18, 2001 Official Washington seems a little confused these days. President Clinton's long goodbye and President-elect George W. Bush's truncated transition seem to have dampened the anticipatory mood that usually grips the capital before an inauguration. Perhaps things will perk up a bit now that Mr. Bush and his wife, Laura, are in town. A city that loves its history will also be glad to see former President George H. W. Bush. As the younger Mr. Bush remarked, this inauguration will be the first since 1961 in which a father has watched his son take the oath. It will also be, of course, just the second time in the nation's history that the son of a former president has achieved the same office. But history is not the only thing that matters to Washington. There is also the forward-looking local sport of sizing up the new leader. On that score, a subdued puzzlement reigns on Capitol Hill. Not since Ronald Reagan's advent in 1981 has there been deeper curiosity over how a new chief executive will govern and what he really wants. And it does not take a lot of snooping around to discover that Republicans and Democrats alike are beginning to suspect that President-elect Bush is far more conservative than either side suspected during the campaign Based on his cabinet appointments, his advocacy of a big, regressive tax cut and his initial statements on foreign relations, the president-elect now stands closer ideologically to Mr. Reagan than to his own father. For example, Congressional Democrats are being told that Mr. Bush does not like the idea of making his $1.6 trillion tax cut fairer by aiming it at payroll taxes that workers pay. Such targeting would give a much quicker boost to the flagging consumer economy than income tax reductions that will take two or more years to take effect. But Mr. Bush seems instinctively drawn to the classic conservative agenda of trimming high marginal rates, capital gains and estate taxes. If Mr. Bush does turn out to be as aggressive as he now appears on, say, limiting federal support for abortion rights, building a missile defense system and giving the extractive industries wider access to federal lands, several questions will arise. Did the news media and his debate opponents interrogate him with sufficient energy on his core ideology? Did Mr. Bush knowingly disguise himself as a standard- issue suburban moderate, or did he simply luck into having John McCain line up on his left and Steve Forbes on his right during the Republican primaries? Democrats on Capitol Hill are beginning to consider another theory. In this view, Mr. Bush really did start out as a moderate, but has leapt to the right because his advisers have concluded that the closeness of the election was due to his failure to bond with the most zealous part of the G.O.P. base. Perhaps this is a good time to remember that a new president sometimes takes a while to discover, or invent, his essential governing persona. Part of the excitement of the Clinton years lay in watching Mr. Clinton define exactly what third-way Democratic politics amounted to. In the campaign, Mr. Bush's speeches stirred the expectation that he wanted to invent a new, distinctive kind of Republicanism, consistent with the party's past but capable of really delivering on the kinder, gentler part of his father's vision. Yesterday, in a farewell speech in Texas, Mr. Bush returned to the inclusive language of respect and cooperation. He is expected to repeat those themes in his inaugural address. But words alone cannot solve the policy puzzle being played out in the nation's capital, because so far, the message beamed from Austin to Washington has been stark and familiar. nytimes.com