President Bush waves to the crowd ,Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2002, at the University of New Hampshire as he arrived to speak in Durham,N.H.. Earlier in the day Bush signed the $26.5 billion federal education bill during a stop in Ohio. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Posted on 01/09/2002 6:05:22 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Bush on Kennedy: 'I actually like the fellow'
01/09/2002
WASHINGTON President Bush had warned his fellow Texans just last weekend.
"A lot of my friends in Midland, Texas, are going to be amazed when I stand up and say nice things about Ted Kennedy," the president said Saturday during a town meeting in California.
| Related Bush signs far-reaching education bill |
And Tuesday in Ohio, as he signed his keystone education bill into law, Mr. Bush did just that.
"He is a fabulous United States senator," the president said. "When he's against you, it's tough. When he's with you, it is a great experience."
In the first year of the Bush presidency, this political odd couple has come full circle from Merritt Elementary School in Washington, where the Democratic senator from Massachusetts first appeared with the new Republican president five days after his inauguration, to Hamilton High School near Cincinnati, where Mr. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The president did not get every reform he proposed during his 2000 campaign, but he got many of them. And he was determined to make the most of it Tuesday during a daylong three-state tour that had Mr. Kennedy riding up front with him on Air Force One.
"I actually like the fellow," Mr. Bush allowed at their first stop in Ohio, before flying off to other education events in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where Mr. Kennedy was the host at Boston Latin School.
Education reform nearly stalled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Kennedy said, but congressional supporters and the president pressed on.
"President Bush was there, every step of the way, making a difference," the senator said in a warm introduction of the president in Boston.
Tuesday's Bush-Kennedy road show was a long way from Texas, where not so long ago, the senator from Massachusetts was often pilloried in Republican campaigns.
In the old days, too, Mr. Kennedy, no stranger to political hardball, used to take after Mr. Bush as the governor of Texas.
"George Bush doesn't have a credibility gap. He has a credibility chasm," Mr. Kennedy thundered on the Senate floor a few weeks before the 2000 presidential election.
But that was then. This is now.
Folks back home might be "somewhat in shock" at the turn of events, Mr. Bush muses. But, in fact, this seemingly topsy-turvy turn of events was carefully nurtured by the new administration to rally congressional support for education reform.
In just the first two weeks of the Bush presidency, the two men met five times, including a private but well-publicized White House screening of the movie Thirteen Days, the story of the Cuban missile crisis during the administration of the senator's brother John F. Kennedy.
The senator, who is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, says he shares "common ground" with the president, though they still differ mightily over myriad health care and economic issues.
Mr. Bush says their relationship shows that politicians at the opposite ends of the political spectrum can work together.
"It's a great symbol of what is possible in Washington," Mr. Bush said.
In this case, too, there's a little something for both men.
"For the president, it symbolically shows that he's willing to reach across partisan and ideological lines to get the job done," political analyst Charles Cook noted.
"For Kennedy, it's just a further sign that he is an 800-pound gorilla on Capitol Hill and that people, if they want to get something done, need to deal with him."
Those that are only peripherally aware of politics (vast majority) see GW as the uniter, little tommy Daschle as the divider.
I think you're right. He's a better person than I because I don't think I could bring myself to say anything nice about Kennedy. I cringed when he did it but I trust that it is his kind, Christian heart. The poor Democrats must shudder when he shines so and especially with one of their own rats.
It seems like only the good die young in politics.
g
If he backs down to Kennedy and his ilk and disappoints his (GWB's) base, then he will be in trouble in 04.
What do you mean “if”?! Bush caved-in, in every way, shape, and form on this education bill.
It is Ted “Splendid Fellow” Kennedy’s bill, top to bottom.
We homeschool too. Great minds.....
It's that logic thing, ya know?
You forgot killer of pregnant woman, all around a$$hole.
It does no good to demonize people like Kennedy. He is not on my page on most things, for sure, but he is an old, sad man and this was a harmless kindness to someone who is NOT going to be running for any other office.
There is a young man from here who has been hired as an aide by Senator Kennedy. He has a disfigured face caused by sinus cancer, and probably wouldn't have been given the time of day by many people. He has been shown nothing but kindness by Kennedy and his staff. So, although I disagree with democrats wholeheartedly, I am not willing to fall into Clintonian behavior and ascribe evil to all of them in every situation.
Plus, Ted Kennedy probably got more exercise yesterday tooling around the northeast with the President than he has in years. Bet he slept in this morning. Ha!
Or drunk.
I saw it on TV, but I have no idea what show. The TV is just noise around here.
I know a guy with liver problems. At first he looked grey and skinny, but when he started taking medication, I swear he must have put on at least 20 pounds. He looks good too, but he doesn't have long either, unless the medication is a success. It's experimental stuff.
Which is the brilliance of this move, as the other big news item relating to the President happens to be Daschle blaming Bush for the recession. The average person doesn't know who Daschle is, but the average person does know who Ted Kennedy is. He's a g-ddammned icon, and Bush praising Kennedy makes Daschle's actions (or lack there of)look even more desperate. Hell, even Dianne Fienstein came out against Daschle's speech.
Sorry but our President needed not go that far. As far as him " liking the fellow", O.K. but to give this democrat= socialist= communist fellow credit for being a "Fabulous senator," no that does not sit right with me.
This is probably one of Bush's famous linguistic blunders.
The word he undoubtedly butchered was fatuous.
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