Bush The Insurgent (Fred Barnes On Why Bush Is Turning D.C Upside Down Alert)

Opinionjournal.com ^ | 11/23/04 | Fred Barnes

[goldstategop]

By Washington standards, Mr. Bush is a misfit. He's different. He barely socializes at all and on weekends and holidays makes a beeline for Camp David or his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He'd rather invite Christian musician Michael W. Smith and his wife to the White House for dinner than eat out. If Mr. Bush really wanted to soothe establishment types, he'd invite them to state dinners at the White House, after which their names would be in the paper. But he's held fewer state dinners than any president in memory.

Mr. Bush is also a seriously religious man in a largely secular town. This has brought him no end of criticism. He also refuses to hide his loathing of the press, probably the most dominant force in Washington. In short, Mr. Bush hasn't tried to fit in.

[Aquinasfan]

they have no problem with fake faith, but can't stand the genuine article.

My theory is that a lot of them believe that all faith is fake. They dislike Bush because he acts on his faith, particularly tenets of his faith that contradict their "lifestyles."

[alnick]

But it's not necessary to accomplish that in a church every Sunday.

[jackbill]

That blast was followed three days later by one from Mr. Gergen. Having worked for three Republican presidents and a Democratic one, taught at Duke and Harvard, and worked in the media in Washington, Mr. Gergen reliably embodies establishment thinking. He is cautious. He was leery about the Iraq war. Now, he wrote in the New York Times, "the immediate danger" facing Mr. Bush is "hubris," or overreaching. He likened Mr. Bush's plans to FDR's attempts to pack the Supreme Court and purge Southern Democratic senators. FDR famously failed.

And there-in lies Mr. Gergen's problem. HE HAS NOT BEEN ASKED TO "ADVISE" PRESIDENT BUSH. He's Pi$$ed.

[CaraM]

What were they doing in that picture? dancing?

[Matchett-PI]

To see the clueless speak with arrogance makes some people laugh.

[Phsstpok]

Port Out Starboard Home = POSH, which meant they had the money and prestige to demand this arrangement that they viewed as advantages for some reason such as where the sun was in the mornings or the view, etc.

This was the sticker put on luggage and tickets of the elite sailing from England across the Atlantic. The port side going west and the starboard side going east are the southern exposures on each voyage, therefore the side with the sun. Much better, particularly in the north Atlantic where these trans-Atlantic ships traveled (think Titanic). Particularly when cabin heating was still a hit or miss thing. Having a sunny exposure was much more comfrotable.

Of course, for Americans making the reverse arrangments would apply, the "good" cabins would have been SOPH. Wonder why that didn't catch on over here? You wonder if some gauche Americans insisted on POSH accomodations, since they were the "good" ones, without realizing what it was about?

[Aquinasfan]

But it's not necessary to accomplish that in a church every Sunday.

Go back and look at the practice of the early Church, the practice of the believers who were alive during the time of Christ and shortly thereafter.

In addition to the fact that the members of the early Christian Church lived close in time to the Apostles (sometimes with firsthand knowledge of Apostolic teaching), the early Church's testimony is also important because Scripture calls the Church "the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15)." Jesus also says that those who will not listen to the Church should be treated as pagans and tax collectors (Mat 18:17).

[El Buscador]

Thats one reason why he was reelected. He recognizes that business as usual isn't working.

[Gritty]

"One tux a term," a White House official said. "That's our idea of outreach to the Washington community."

Ya just gotta love this guy....

[Phsstpok]

One of the things that the left has always done is they've driven the "narrative" through their ownership of the press. The 2000 Florida problem was Republicans suppressing votes, not Democrats trying to invent votes to cheat. The impeachment was "just about sex" so perjury wasn't really perjury. For four years they've tried to sell the idea that Bush was a dunce and now they're pushing the notion that he only got elected because of religious fundamentalist wing nuts.

And it ain't working.

Now a narrative is emerging that doesn't spring from THEM. Barnes article is part of it. The stories about the Sharansky visit to the White House are another big part. The quote from Joel Rosenberg's piece in New Republic are starting to define the Bush Presidency in a different way:

"I told the president, 'There is a great difference between politicians and dissidents. Politicians are focused on polls and the press. They are constantly making compromises. But dissidents focus on ideas. They have a message burning inside of them. They would stand up for their convictions no matter what the consequences.'

"I told the president, 'In spite of all the polls warning you that talking about spreading democracy in the Middle East might be a losing issue — despite all the critics and the resistance you faced — you kept talking about the importance of free societies and free elections. You kept explaining that democracy is for everybody. You kept saying that only democracy will truly pave the way to peace and security. You, Mr. President, are a dissident among the leaders of the free world.'"

From one of the most famous dissidents of era of the Evil Empire, such is not faint praise.

Bush is a dissident.  He's an anti-establishment reformer.  He disdains the elite "power brokers" and, in fact, is here to take away their power, because they are the ones who have caused all these problems.

I like this narrative.  Now we have to follow the Democrats tactic of endless repetition until it is accepted as dogma.  We do have one great advantage for this narrative compared to what the Democrats always sell.  This narrative happens to be the truth.

[alnick]

Go back and look at the practice of the early Church, the practice of the believers who were alive during the time of Christ and shortly thereafter.

The question was, "Isn't Sunday attendance sort of a mandantory part of the Christian faith?"

It is not mandatory. Jesus Christ did not say, "Ye shall attend church services every Sunday in order to be saved."

It's desirable, sure, but not mandatory.

[jwalsh07]

"One tux a term," a White House official said. "That's our idea of outreach to the Washington community."

Sounds about right to me.

[SuziQ]

"One tux a term," a White House official said. "That's our idea of outreach to the Washington community."

I love this President!

[MeekOneGOP]

I like Fred Barnes a lot. My favorite FOX News show is Special Report with Brit Hume. When Brit Hume or Fred Barnes isn't there, it's a disappointment to me. If Charles Krauthammer is, that is a good consolation. I like CK also.

---

From the article:

Mr. Bush's agenda is post-Reagan in its conservatism, which means it's more far-reaching and thus more threatening to the establishment. Mr. Bush would not only reform Social Security and allow individuals to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in financial markets, he would also revamp the entire federal tax code and fill the Supreme Court with judicial conservatives. And those are only his domestic plans. In foreign affairs, Mr. Bush would make aggressive efforts to spread democracy around the world the centerpiece. The foreign policy élite is aghast.

From the start of his first term, Mr. Bush has been immune to the blandishments of the establishment. When Reagan came to Washington in 1980, he made a point of attending a welcoming party at the home of the late Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. It signified his desire for cordial relations with the establishment. Reagan mostly got along fine, while still pursuing policies (tax cuts, fervent anti-communism) frowned on in Washington. His wife Nancy became his ambassador to the establishment. If Mr. Bush had an ambassador, it was Secretary of State Colin Powell, and he's leaving the administration.

---

You tell 'em, Fred!!

[SuziQ]

This little tale reveals more about who Fred Barnes is and who he isn't.

Oh, I don't think Fred has a problem with the President's attitudes. He's commenting more on the hysteria in the 'establishment' that their favored position holds no water with the Bush Administration. The President is neither impressed with, nor cowed by the DC 'movers and shakers', so he doesn't feel the need to coddle them as other Presidents have done.

[Aquinasfan]

It is not mandatory. Jesus Christ did not say, "Ye shall attend church services every Sunday in order to be saved."

I don't mean to be contentious, just explaining my position. If the Bible tells us to "listen to the Church," and the Church mandates Sunday worship, then Sunday worship is mandatory.

You're correct that Scripture doesn't record Jesus explicitly mandating Sunday worship, but keep in mind that Saturday worship was mandated for the Jews, and that Jesus didn't come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. And Old Testament types prefigure their superior, New Testament counterparts.

Hebrews 10:24-25

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

See the surrounding context especially.

[BluH2o]

A big difference from Clinton, who faked religious sincerity and carried a bible prominently with him to and from Sunday worship services.

Always carrying the bible in the hand closest to the camera ...

[Safetgiver]

Kind of hard to bash your host too hard in your newspaper when you've just left the man's mansion with a bellyfull of his food and drink. Gee, tell that to Teddy Kennedy.

[kevkrom]

the Catholic doctrine that we have an OBLIGATION to attend services every Sunday is "posh"?

Not to start a flame-war, but do not confuse Catholic doctrine for requirements for Christianity.

[Rocky Mountain Mama]

The President of the United States is a target, and has special security concerns which are often burdensome, every time he goes out in public, especially now that we are at war. He didn't attend his daughters' college graduation because of it, it does not mean he doesn't love them or wish he could have been there. It means he thinks more of who he would be inconviencing than he thinks of himself.

If you are trying to make the point that Bush is a bad Christian because he doesn't attend services in a public church every Sunday, give it up. It just isn't true. You do not know that Bush does not worship PRIVATELY with others at Camp David or in Crawford.

I am assuming you are not trying to start a war between Catholics' views of services and Protestants' views of services. In the Protestant view, PUBLIC Sunday worship is NOT mandatory, since salvation rests on faith, not works. Protestants realize Catholics believe differently about this. Bush is a Protestant, not a Catholic, that is no shock to anyone.

Only on FR could a post about Bush shaking up establishment Washington turn into an issue between Catholics and Protestants.