Back on Inauguration Day, the Washington Post ran a Bush administration-spun piece on how a reflective President Bush was looking to change the tone of Washington based on some of the lessons he had learned during his first term:
President Bush is a politician with large ambitions and few doubts, someone not easily given to mea culpas. But in the run-up to today’s inauguration, he has at least hinted at some of the lessons learned in office. From his relations with Democrats in Congress to his approach to the rest of the world, Bush has suggested he will try to strike a different tone — without abandoning principles or policies.
So, how’s that transformation been going so far? It’s been a very subtle one, if Representative Charles Rangle (D-NY) is correct concerning the president’s lobbying efforts for Social Security “reform”:
But there is no Democrat in the House of Representatives, or on my committee, that this president has reached out for. I’m telling you now, Social Security reform by the president is dead, and he killed it.
Huh? This is supposed to be one of Bush’s top priorities, right? Even under the best of circumstances, it would be very hard for a president to change Social Security. Are you telling me this president is trying to do this without making a serious effort to reach out to any Democrats? Yet another example of incompetence in action.
But there’s more. Less than a month into his second term, Bush has applied his “lessons learned” by resubmitting a list of 12 judicial appointments which the Democrats blocked the first term. Apparently the lesson learned was to not waste any time in sticking something back in your opponents’ faces when you have the votes.
A month ago, we heard an awful lot of hot air from the chattering classes about the “changed” Mr. Bush. It was just that–hot air. Nothing has changed; it’s the same old “W.”