I love Newt’s intellect, but I see him as secretary to the president, like sununu was to GB. Vice presidents are usually ignored, like biden. The last vice president that meant anything was chaney and he couldn’t stop bush from bargaining with ‘Ted Kennedy, the stupid son’!
Bush’s misguided dealings with Kennedy were driven from his past experience of dealing with a more reasoned type of Democrat such as those he dealt with in Texas. Bob Bullock, after all, the D Lt. Gov. worked closely with Bush and even supported his bid for President and I believe was one of the first to tell him he should run for the office. Bush didn’t reallize the anomaly he was dealing with in Austin didn’t exist in Washington. Of course if he’d have studied history from the early 80s and before he would have realized that Democrats in Washington are not to be trusted nor believed.
However, how much better off were we that Bush was the President on Sept 11, 2001 and not Al Gore?