October 2, 2006
The Bob Woodward book confirms the worst about the lazy and arrogant president we’ve got there in the White House.
He won’t listen to anyone who delivers bad news, he refuses to grapple with facts on the ground that undercut his position, and he insists on saying in public that things are rosy in Iraq when the reports he’s getting show just the opposite.
His stubbornness would embarrass a mule.
When Bush said, according to Woodward, that he wasn’t going to leave Iraq even if the only ones who agree with him are Laura and their dog Barney, he actually misspoke.
Because Laura’s view doesn’t seem to matter, either.
Woodward says that after the 2004 election, Laura, along with then-Chief of Staff Andy Card, wanted to get rid of Rumsfeld.
But Bush said no, listening instead, I guess, to Barney and to that other White House canine, Dick Cheney.
The President and Vice President have another old dog they play with regularly, this one named Henry Kissinger.
Cheney told Woodward that Kissinger is the person he consults with most on the job, and that Bush values Kissinger’s advice a great deal, too, inviting him to the White House once a month or so.
So Bush needs to revise his manifesto of stubbornness: He won’t leave Iraq, even if the only ones who agree with him are Barney, Cheney, and Henry the K.
He’d do better to listen to Laura.