[If you cross Bush, he’ll smile and pat you on the back.]
I think you’re right about that. For all his faults, GW does seem to have a sense of honor.
[I do wish he’d wake up and understand that politics requires you to reward your friends and punish your enemies]
I just wish he’d be a little pickier about who his friend$ are.
I’m not saying that Bush should imitate the clintons, as I tried to indicate. If you cross the clintons, they will break the laws to nail you, and maybe even give you a dirt bath. I’m not suggesting that Bush should misuse the IRS or the SEC to get back at his enemies, still less send the Dixie Mafia after them.
BUT.
He needs to support his friends and loyal subordinates. If someone in congress angers his constituents to help pass one of Bush’s bills, he needs to reward him. And if someone votes against a bill the way Lincoln Chaffee did, he needs to punish him.
If your cause is good, then it’s all the more important to do these things. You don’t leave your subordinates dangling in the wind when your political enemies attack them. And you don’t let your allies constantly get away with betraying you.
Bush does reward his personal friends, some of them people like Alberto Gonzalez and Harriet Miers who don’t deserve it, because they aren’t up to the jobs he tries to put them in. But he doesn’t always reward his faithful subordinates and loyal political allies, people like Rick Santorum or Scooter Libby, who give their all to help the cause and then are punished for their pains.