Jewish World Review Sept 30, 2005 / 26 Elul, 5765

Time for Prez to remove the ‘KICK ME!’ sign

By Tony Snow

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | George W. Bush must wonder what's next — a plague of locusts?

Within the span of five weeks, the president has faced political blowback from two hurricanes, attacks by swarming Democrats, a Supreme Court nomination semi-battle (presaging an Armageddon struggle over the seat now occupied by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor), a conservative rebellion against his profligate spending and the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

The onslaught illustrates a paradox peculiar to this administration. George W. Bush constantly invites trouble by giving the appearance of weakness on the domestic-policy front, only to have political foes react in a way that makes him stronger.

Begin with the wimp factor. No president has looked this impotent this long when it comes to defending presidential powers and prerogatives. Nearly 57 months into his administration, President Bush has yet to veto a single bill of any type. The only other presidents never to issue a veto — William Henry Harrison and James Garfield — died within months of taking office.

The budget has grown nearly 50 percent on his watch, and he is vying to become the most free-spending president ever. To date, he has not asked Congress to rescind even a penny in profligate spending (even Bill Clinton requested more than $8 billion in rescissions, and Ronald Reagan sought upward of $80 billion).

When he drew a line in the sand earlier this year on transportation spending, Congress boldly appropriated an additional $30 billion. He approved the bill, effectively placing a "kick me" sign on his backside.

There's more. He infamously signed the campaign-finance-reform bill that has made a mess of national politics, hoping the courts would issue the veto for him.

He defended himself against baseless charges of racism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by whimpering, "Guilty," during a nationally televised speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans.

He surrendered meekly when Democrats laid waste to his faith-based initiative, held hands with Sen. Edward Kennedy when Congress turned his educational reforms into an excuse to enlarge the federal government's role in local education and shrugged it off when character assassins took down such judicial nominees as Miguel Estrada.

This kind of behavior has given the impression that George W. Bush is more eager to please than lead, and that political opponents can get their way if they simply dig in their heels and behave like petulant trust-fund brats, demanding money and favor — now!

Howard Dean already has talked of filibustering the next Supreme Court nominee, and the DeLay indictment has sent Democratic leaders into venomous raptures. Harry Reid, who has routed tens of thousands of acres of federal lands to himself, his family and companies for which his children work, brashly complained of cronyism in post-Katrina federal contracting. Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed oil and gas price controls, even as oil prices were tumbling — and industry analysts were predicting $40 a barrel for oil in the foreseeable future.

It is almost as if the president were playing rope-a-dope, waiting for his political opponents to render themselves permanently ridiculous. But all good things come to an end, and the tactic of waiting for Democrats to choke on their bile may have run its course.

World events since Sept. 11, 2001, let George W. Bush define his presidency through vigorous and aggressive reaction — fighting a war on terror. Now, he must do something even more difficult. He must lead without having a crisis determine which issues he must address.

It all comes down to how he defines "compassionate conservatism." Does it mean he intends to spend like a Democrat and tax like a Republican, or that he plans to unveil a free-market alternative to the cruel and desiccating philosophy of welfare-state liberalism? Does he believe conservative policies can do a better job of rooting out material and spiritual poverty, or that limited-government conservatism is a flint-hearted scam?

Critics in both parties are forcing him to declare himself — Democrats assailing his left flank; Republicans blasting his right. The next four months will determine whether he will ignite a Bush Revolution in domestic policy, or whether he has completed all his significant executive work.

His presidential report card already shows an "A" on foreign policy, but with the exceptions of tax policy and judicial selections, he remains a domestic-policy cipher. It's now up to him to decide whether he will complete his term by earning an A, an F or an incomplete.