Posted on 01/09/2006 12:57:50 PM PST by Kaslin
In public, the relationship between President Bush and former GOP House majority leader Tom DeLay has been friendly, but in private it’s been downright distant.
According to this week’s Time magazine, while on the surface they have been cordial to each other, there has been a "longtime chill” between the two men.
Time describes their relationship as strictly professional. "DeLay admires Bush's leadership but still thinks of himself as the strongest conservative on the block," a DeLay friend told Time. "They perceive DeLay as a bull in a china shop. They appreciate him as their protector and retriever."
For his part, Bush was publicly supportive of DeLay during his re-election bid in 2004, but the inside story is quite different.
"Privately ... he questioned his fellow Texan's mojo. Bush had scored 10 points higher than DeLay in the Representative's district in 2004, and that was only after Bush had recorded a telephone message to help rally local Republicans. 'I can't believe I had to do robocalls for him, the President said bitingly to an Oval Office visitor," writes the magazine.
A point of contention between the two is top White House political guru Karl Rove. DeLay had no help from Rove in rising to power in Texas, something which not many Texas politicos can claim. DeLay is said to be "less than enthusiastic about Rove’s much vaunted political savvy."
"Karl thinks of (DeLay) as someone a little bit too opinionated for his own good," an official close to both men told Time. "And DeLay thinks of Karl as a former mail vendor, not some great guru."
White House advisers allege that the men around Bush have treated DeLay as a necessary burden, noting that while he may have had an unmatched grip on the House and Washington lobbyists, DeLay is not the kind of guy — in background and temperament — the President feels comfortable with.
Time quotes a an unnamed Republican allegedly close to the President's inner circle as saying of the man Time sneeringly calls "the former exterminator” that "They have always seen him as beneath them, more blue collar. He's seen as a useful servant, not someone you would want to vacation with," the source sniffed.
You bet it is....and I bet Dubya is more comfortable sitting around with a *blue collar* worker than any of those stuffed shirts in DC........this is pure BS..
Time Magazine?....man, this is suspect from the get go!
Exactly
Neither do I
the President said bitingly to an Oval Office visitor
a DeLay friend says
says an official close to both men
top Bush advisers tell TIME
Republican close to the President's inner circle says
an adviser said after talking to White House aides
says a Bush friend intimately familiar with the staff protocols
A Bush aide said it
This passes for journalism?
I think Bush said to cameras that he does not believe that Delay is guilty.
If this is true, why on earth does Bush go out of his way to say Delay is innocent? This is hogwash.
AND they couldn't find anyone to speak for attribution.
No names. Just "friend, source" etc.
I noticed one of the authors was Mathew Cooper. So it's no surprise to me
New Smax? Haven't heard that one before. Personally, I call it Newsmin.
I guess you will never truly know until Bush gives Delay a Presidential Pardon if he is convicted of a money laundering crime in the Texas courts.
Again, I say, Bush is no dummy. He knows what a good job Delay has done with keeping the Congress together on votes the administration wanted. This has not been the case lately since Delay has been out of leadership position. This is the exact result the DemocRATs wanted when they wrongly indicted Delay in the first place. The GOP is nuts to have that indictment rule in the first place. The DemocRATs don't have it for their people. That GOP rule that a person has to step down from leadership if only indicted is nuts. It only encourages DemocRATS to bring on frivolous indictments against GOP members of Congress and ties GOP hands of doing the same to the DemocRATS.
No one can convince you unless you're open to it. However, the following quote from the article is attributed to the President. I can all but guarantee you that it is a phony simply because GWB doesn't talk this way. He certainly wouldn't do so to "an Oval Office visitor." Furthermore, the "quote" -- a single sentence -- obviously has no context to it. If it was said, what was said before and after, and by whom?
"I can't believe I had to do robocalls for him," the President said bitingly to an Oval Office visitor, writes the magazine.
If this unnamed visitor even exists, notice that TIME has not even applied the usual obtuse clues to his or her identity, such as "an official," "a White House official," "a source close to the White House" -- that sort of thing.
People don't just visit the Oval Office. They sure as heck don't just visit the Oval Office and, wham, out of the blue have the President of the United States blurt out something critical of another elected official.
GW is OK but I'll always like Tom Delay better. I like his style despite the Jack Abramoff mess
Shaddup. Tom Delays is the man! I just wish he had never met Jack Abramoff. Other than that Tom has done great by America. A lot better than idiots like John McCain with his dumb anti torture bills and dumb campaign reform measures. Tom Delay is giant to the sniveling RINOs and hacks that populate todays Republican party. Look at that Arlen Spector on TV today. Tom Delay is head and shoulders above him
Please cite the section of the Constitution that authorizes nonsense like No Child Left Behind.
I agree on all points, except that knowing about DeLay's good job and appreciating him are two different things.
The story may be partly or wholly untrue. But the White House does seem to prefer the go-along, get-along types to the real fighters. That's what lends the story credibility, in my book. I don't see why the quote about "robocalls" seems phony.
As I said, no one can convince you unless you are open to it.
What's so unusual about having "chilly" relations?
Being's as they're both from Texas, the President and Delay no doubt get together every few weeks to swap "chilly" recipe's --- you know, the good ol' fashioned fire-breathing halapinio kind found down near Crawford and Austin, Texas.
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