Mark Steyn: Dubya does it his way

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 11/10/2002 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

Well, if he is an "arrogant cowboy" he's got a lot more to be arrogant about. Within the space of 60 hours this week, George W Bush pulled off an amazing double, stacking up impressive victories in both the US elections and the UN Security Council. In both cases, Two-Gun Tex didn't have to fire a shot, merely stand back and let his opponents shoot themselves in the foot - or possibly a little higher up.

In the summer, Mr Bush said he didn't need congressional approval to go to war with Iraq. Congressional Democrats huffily insisted that he did. So Bush said fine, have a vote and let's see where you stand. Likewise, he said he didn't need the approval of the UN. The windbags of "the international community" huffily insisted that he did. So Bush said okay, you guys take a vote, too.

It's not just that Two-Gun Tex called their bluff but that he played them off against each other brilliantly, going to the UN just before the congressional vote to give the Democrats a little multilateral cover, and then whumping the Dems just before the UN vote to remind Chirac and co that, while he may be an arrogant swaggering moronic cowboy, there ain't gonna be a new sheriff in town for another six years.

So, after weeks of French obfuscation and veto preening, the Associated Press reported that "a breakthrough in negotiations came Thursday". Thursday, you say? Amazing. Wonder why that was.

Whether or not Mr Chirac intends to take the UN resolution seriously, Mr Bush expects him to. From New Hampshire to Florida to South Dakota, the President campaigned forcefully for Republican candidates on a handful of consistent themes: on the domestic front, making the $1.3 trillion tax-cut package permanent, and allowing workers to invest a portion of their social security taxes in the stock market; on national defence, establishing a real Homeland Security department; and on foreign policy, Iraq.

In other words: these are the things that will happen. When the President returns to New Hampshire in 2004, he'll be talking about something else, because the tax cuts will be permanent, the Homeland Security Department up and running, and Saddam and his four favourite lookalikes will be sharing a retirement condo over Robert Mugabe's garage. (Memo to the Butcher of Baghdad: that's a best-case scenario, by the way.)

After this week, it may be time for the President's disparagers to get some new insults. It's true there are a lot of dumb shoot-from-the-hip gunslingers on the right: I'm one myself - I wish he'd taken Baghdad in the spring, and told the UN to go screw 'emselves. But that's not the Bush style. He doesn't rush headlong into gunfights at the OK Corral, he corrals folks until they say they're OK about the gunfight: that's what he's done with Congress, and the American people and Blair and Putin and Chirac and the Chinese.

So I have the opposite problem with Mr Bush from The Guardian and Le Monde: because he's insufficiently trigger-happy, I underestimated him. When his judicial nominees were bottled up by Democrat obstructionist ideologues, I wanted him to do to Vermont Senator Pat Leahy what Clinton did to Newt Gingrich: destroy the guy. Instead, Bush looked at a handful of vulnerable Democrat Senate seats in Missouri, Minnesota and elsewhere, and slyly moved them into play.

The result is that the judiciary committee is now back in Republican hands, and Senator Leahy's got a one-way ticket on the oblivion express. Mr Bush has destroyed the guy without ever having to say a word about him. Meanwhile, all the states the Dems specifically targeted - from Florida to New Hampshire - are more Republican than ever. I was wrong. The Bush way is more effective.

In similar fashion, Mr Bush has chosen to disarm Saddam by first disarming the Democrats and then the international community. Now the hope of the Saddamite appeasers is that Iraq will submit to the UN sufficiently non-risibly to enable a new inspections regime to go through the motions and string things out until spring, at which point war will be impossible because US troops would be bogged down in the searing desert heat.

(The brutal Iraqi summer is this year's insurmountable meteorological obstacle, a worthy successor to the rapidly approaching horrors of "the brutal Afghan winter", which by my reckoning is currently 14 months behind schedule.) It won't happen. The deadlines in the resolution are a box not for the US but the UN: they effectively put an expiry date on the credibility of the "international community".

In Texas, in 1994, Bush was only the second Republican Governor in 130 years and pretty much the party's lone star in an overwhelmingly Democrat state. With Bush gone, the Texas Dems figured the natural order would be restored. Instead, on Tuesday they were trounced up and down the ticket: the Senator, Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are all Republican, the Grand Old Party strengthened its grip on the state Senate and took control of the House away from the Democrats for the first time since 1873.

That's to say, Bush effected real, long-term political change in Texas. On Tuesday, he did the same across America. In the next couple of months, he'll make it a hat-trick in Iraq.

[Cicero]

When his judicial nominees were bottled up by Democrat obstructionist ideologues, I wanted him to do to Vermont Senator Pat Leahy what Clinton did to Newt Gingrich: destroy the guy. Instead, Bush looked at a handful of vulnerable Democrat Senate seats in Missouri, Minnesota and elsewhere, and slyly moved them into play. The result is that the judiciary committee is now back in Republican hands, and Senator Leahy's got a one-way ticket on the oblivion express. Mr Bush has destroyed the guy without ever having to say a word about him.

It's Schadenfreude time!

[speekinout]

I don't know why people are surprised. Bush states very clearly what he wants, and he has also said that he is a patient man.
He'll negotiate on some of the steps to get where he wants to go, but not on the final outcome. Nor on anything that matters for the final result.

Actually, I'm not sure that he ever compromises on anything except some trivialities that allow his opposition to "save face" :-)

[Republic]

I just didn't want you guys to miss this article.

Mark wrote above: I was wrong. The Bush way is more effective. [versus a shootum up, destroy um from the bully pulpit kind of MO]

Our President understands civility. He understands hard work. And he knows God. I am just so happy this good man came to be our President at just the right time.

Ya know-character-is truly everything. I just want to shove a sign into Carville's face that reads It's all about CHARACTER, stupid!.

(Guess I am more like Mark here, hehe, because our President would never stoop to such passionate invective!)

[gramho12]

This is about the greatest analysis of the Bush Model of making change I have seen. Even Rush admitted the other day that he was wrong about Bush's "changing the tone."

While Bush gets things accomplished over and over without resorting to villifying his opponent, he makes them look small and ineffective when they say vile and cruel things about our President.

People respect President Bush, because he respects the office of the President, thereby showing his respect for the American people.

God Bless our President.

[Alas Babylon!]

As C. Montgomery Burns says: Revenge is a dish best served cold.

[Amelia]

Saddamite appeasers

Very descriptive phrase...I wonder if Mr Steyn would mind if I borrowed it from time to time?

[FreeperinRATcage]

This is true revenge. Taking what your opponent values most away from him.

But ya know what? It probably had nothing to do with getting revenge on Leahy and Daschle...the Presidents actions to restore the Senate to sanity were, to him, simply the best way for him to get his job done.

[Maigret]

I don't know why people are surprised.

A politician who says what he means? Now that has to be a surprise! Albeit a most pleasant one :)

[Spyder]

I pray that all the detractors who called Mr. Bush stupid are eating crow--better yet--something far less appealing--if you get my drift.

I just hope the media, Molly Ivins, DUh, and all the lefties continue to portray him as a boob though - just shows them up for the idiots they are while everyone else knows the truth.

[Chemnitz]

Steyn is great, I agree. He misunderestimated W.

One thing struck me in reading about W. He has been portrayed as only a party boy at Yale. Doubtless he had a good time. One observation struck me. He was extremely good at sizing up a person and making hilarious remarks about him. I have never doubted W.'s intelligence. His speaking was once horrible, but he learned fast. His father never did. I think his ability to size up people and say such funny things was an early glimmer of his intuition and intelligence. Someone at the time said he was hiding his intelligence.

Now looking at what W. accomplished in Texas and then just now, he is rapidly becoming a young Reagan, not a Junior bush.

Many strong leaders move on and the opposition takes over in the vacuum. W. moved on and the revolution continued. That is pretty amazing.

[desertcry]

It looks like Mr. Steyn has finally figured this dimwit cowboy out! Ahhhh the W way, how sweet it is!

[PLK]

But ya know what? It probably had nothing to do with getting revenge on Leahy and Daschle...the Presidents actions to restore the Senate to sanity were, to him, simply the best way for him to get his job done.

You are right. People at his level go about their business without ever getting their blood pressure up. It's professionalism at its utmost.

I, OTOH, would be a maniac.

[ohioWfan]

It is SO satisfying to have so many others finally see what some of us saw from the beginning...... a man of CHARACTER, who is being obedient to and led by GOD and is afraid of no one or nothing, who says what he means, and is patient enough to do what is right and not what is expedient.

AWESOME article about an AWESOME President!

Thanks for the ping Republic, and the article Pokey!

[desertcry]

The W Way is simply the results of his habit: When he gets out of bed in the morning, he is on his knees asking the Lord for guidance on his actions of the day. At days end, before he goes to sleep, he is on his knees again, thanking the lord for his days work, and asking forgiveness for his mis-steps. So, liberal media here's your answer why President GWB did not gloat over his big victory, no matter how hard you try to bait him.

[txzman]

"I have to admit that I have been underestimating him. He is going to get more accomplished then I thought. And I would not want to be on his bad side."

This is exactly what I told my Dad when he questioned Bush's ability. I told him that as Govenor in Texas you almost didn't know there was an opposition party - he had successfully co-opted the movers and shakers to get things done, gaining a tremendous amount of respect and even the endorsement of the state's #1 Democrat, Bob Bullock, who was his Lt. Gov. Bullock called him one of the finest men he knew and the most worthy for the job.

George may not appear like much on the surface, but watch out America. He is just gettin' started.

[Republic]

Gram-what a terrific post! Worth a bump...and then some!

[Republic]

It's Schadenfreude time!

Ok.....ok...I know everyone knows what this means, I don't. Now I am even hearing it said on Fox News. Please fill me in...I have no excuse, just suffer a large bushel of plain ol basic DUH now and then. Hehe.

[Republic]

Is this not a beautiful response to this article by Mark:

desertcry: The W Way is simply the results of his habit: When he gets out of bed in the morning, he is on his knees asking the Lord for guidance on his actions of the day. At days end, before he goes to sleep, he is on his knees again, thanking the lord for his days work, and asking forgiveness for his mis-steps. So, liberal media here's your answer why President GWB did not gloat over his big victory, no matter how hard you try to bait him.

This drips with truth.

[Miss Marple]

Whwn President Bush was a candidate, I wrote this as his agenda:

Fix country.
Go fishin'.

I was joking, but I really think that is how he thinks.

I have taken a lot of flack from people who think I am nothing but a Bush groupie. I was happy to take the flack, and will be happy to continue to do so.

The fact of the matter is that back when he was first a candidate I and many others saw something in him more than just a candidate. We were right, and those who thought he wa an empty-suit, frat-boy RINO were just plain wrong.

I firmly believe he will be listed as one of the greatest presidents in history. May God continue to bless him and his family.