I suppose I should have known that compassionate conservatism was just a buzzword used to placate soundbite-hungry journalists.
But now we know the real truth: Behind the compassionate façade, President George W. Bush plans on running the country his way, by his rules.
And in a lot of ways, he has every right to. Despite the questions of legitimacy that will plague the rest of his time in office, he really is the president and has made no bones about that. By avoiding all references to the election of Nov. 7 and the subsequent recount debacle, he has allowed himself tremendous conservative leeway in cabinet appointments, executive orders and out-of-the-gate policy decisions. He has reinstated a Reagan-Bush era policy, cutting off all aid to foreign family-planning organizations that counsel for or provide abortions. In addition, he is still pushing for his $1.3 trillion \across the board"" tax cut, and has found congressional assistance in that endeavor from Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga.
But Bush is really serving two masters, much to his consternation. Despite his widely publicized talk of bipartisanship, he will attempt to push his policies in unyielding and partisan fashions. After all, bipartisanship is really only a word one uses as a last resort, after one knows that one can't do it all alone with only one's own party. Bush has to be firm in the face of the conservative base that elected him. But in addition, with memories of the election looming, a 50-50 Senate and the youngest, most energetic ex-president standing on the sidelines, ready to criticize his every move, Bush is in grave need of bipartisan support on a number of his initiatives.
He has found an ally on taxes in Miller. A number of other prominent Democrats have publicly praised some of the tenets of his education plan, including Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who also promised to nix the vouchers proposal contained within.
Granted, with the need for a compromise inherent in any piece of legislation, Bush won't get everything that he wants. He will have some supporters on both sides of the proverbial aisle, but his tax cut will not end up being as big as $1.3 trillion.
In addition, Bush met yesterday for about 45 minutes with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the issue of campaign-finance reform. Although Bush has tried to vaguely state in the past that he supports some measures of reform in this media-driven area of public policy, he will not be able to go as far as McCain-Feingold will ask him to upon a vote or signature. Make no mistake; this is a conservative presidency, despite his heterogeneous-looking cabinet and overtures to the opposition party.
It will not come without challenges, needless to say. As a result, Bush is, in a lot of ways, trying to shoot high initially and then bargain down to the highest number or estimate he can get. In addition, he has narrowed down his list of short-term initiatives and will choose issues with areas of bipartisan agreement as he did as the governor of Texas, and as former President Bill Clinton did with issues like the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In spite of it all, the late start, the fights over cabinet secretaries and other transitional problems, the Bush team seems poised to take on Washington, D.C., with all the vim and vigor that their cowboy hats and spurs will afford them.
While on the subject of the transition, I'd like to say a bit about Clinton's exit from office. Albeit reluctant and calculated, his exit from office was as graceful as a media whore like himself could pull off. He utilized the executive order to save a great amount of land for environmental protection (which is in the process of being reversed by the Bushes) and gave his last speech of his administration.
But he did, in traditional Clinton fashion, manage to have an ethical tiff. He pardoned a man who evaded $8 million in taxes and fled to Switzerland in the early 1980s. Since then, his wife has given more than $500,000 to the Democratic National Committee and last week got what she paid for.
Now, I've never seen a real poll reflecting the need to give the Oval Office a ""darn good scrubbing"" as Bush puts it, but this money-for-pardons idea is even more disgusting than the entire Lewinsky scandal.
Nice job, Bill. You made the other guy look better than you, one final time.
