Defending Dubya

Stand by Your Man

By Rick Horowitz

Ways you can tell that a White House thinks it's in trouble:
A) It hunkers down.
B) It speaks up.
C) It goes on the attack.
D) All of the above.

Ways you can tell that a White House thinks it's in real trouble:
A) It calls in special reinforcements.

For Team Bush, the answer is -- well, you know what the answer is. In the great Connecting the Dots flap, they've tried a little bit of everything.

They've done the hunkering down when it comes to the high points along the paper trail: that July 5 memo from the FBI agent in Phoenix, speculating that Middle Eastern men connected to Osama bin Laden or to other terrorist groups might be receiving training at American flight schools; and the president's August 6 briefing paper from the CIA, raising the possibility of bin Laden operatives hijacking American planes. The Bush folks have no interest in letting those documents ever see the light of day, thank you very much.

They've done the speaking up at press conferences, and all over the Sunday talk shows: The warnings were vague, they weren't really even warnings, nobody could possibly have imagined that somebody would actually try to...

And they've gone on the attack -- everybody from the president himself calling Washington "the kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature," to press secretary Ari Fleischer ripping the skin off various members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who've dared to raise questions about who knew what and when, and if not, why not?

They've tried all of these things -- proof positive that they know they've got a problem on their hands. But the clearest sign that they know just how big a problem they've got? And how much bigger it still could get? They launched an ICBM.

An intercontinental ballistic missus.

Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen: They tossed Laura Bush, the first lady of the land, into the fray. Laura Bush, who was in Budapest at the time, in the midst of a European tour. Laura Bush, who is widely admired and widely respected, and widely known to keep herself out of the messy business of politics.

Which is all very nice in theory -- but the risk to her hubby's reputation was hardly theoretical. Which is how Mrs. Bush came to be making a statement criticizing the critics.

"I think it is very sad," she said, "that people would play upon the victims' families' emotions, or all Americans' emotions." she said.

"I know my husband," she said, "and all Americans know how he has acted in Afghanistan and in the war with terror. I think, really, we need to put this in perspective, and I think it's sad to play upon the emotions of people as if there were something we could have done to stop it, because that's just not the case."

That August briefing, she said, "and I only know what you know from watching Dr. Rice on television, was so inspecific that there was no way he could have predicted what would happen from this intelligence."

Now, you can choose to believe that Mrs. Bush decided all on her own to speak out all the way from Budapest on the issue that's galvanized Washington, decided all her own to rush to her husband's defense simply because she felt it was the proper, wifely thing to do.

You can also choose to believe that Britney Spears is the Duchess of Windsor -- but I wouldn't bet the rent on it.

Posted 5/21/02. Award-winning commentary from syndicated columnist Rick Horowitz? That's a safe bet!

Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist, TV commentator, writing coach and public speaker

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