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."
When Congress passed the Fiscal Year 2002 Education Appropriations bill, it gave Goals 2000 only enough money to shut down for good. HSLDA is pleased that Congress has taken the final step in eliminating Goals 2000.
Thanks for verifying mine!
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Whew, that was scary, is she up for election this year?
I think Bush is doing an fairly decent job domestically, and prosecuting the war effort brilliantly.
But some of his actions, like this education bill, are a disgrace.
"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
I have no gripe with his statement. We are all mature enough to recognize political expediency when we see it.
I appreciate the advance warning and take from it the message he meant to convey to us.
( His warning was the equivalent of one of our "barf alerts".)
The Bill sucks bilge water but that is a topic for another thread.
Bush outsmarted Kennedy.
Dream on. LOL
The same man who says he reveres Ted Kennedy is the same man who says Islam is a religion of peace and is the same man who says China is America's trusted friend in the war on terrorism. Is there a pattern here?
If the man does not believe what he says but is trying to appease his enemies, it is starting to seem a little transparent, would you not say? Why should the enemies take him seriously with his flatteries? Is it not unwise for the man to prop up America's enemies for too long? Does it not eventually send the wrong message and embolden the enemies?
If the man believes what he says, then watch out America because this would mean the man really is a friend of America's mortal enemies-Kennedy socialism, Chinese espionage and support of terrorism, and Islamic terrorism.
If the man were ever to try to flatter me, should I take that to mean he thinks I am truly his friend, or one of his enemies?
After a time, words do mean something, words do have an effect, for good or for bad, even if hypocritcal or contradictory and spoken by a politician.
Do not read the man's lips, read what comes out of both sides of his mouth.
And also don't forget the size of the mandate he has to work with.
I've got news for Pres. Bush- it isn't just his friends in Midland who are surprised (and no doubt disappointed) with his praise of Sen. Teetotaler.
I have no doubt that W is trying to kill them with kindness, but I still don't like it. Between this lousy education bill, the ridiculous anti-terrorism bill creating more voters for the Dems, not to mention the land grab bill supported by supposedly conservative senators, it would appear that the elitist Repubs have decided that they can take the conservative vote for granted.
They had better think twice about that.
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