Fear Factor:

[INTRO: We generally disagree with Andrew Sullivan, except when he's deploring torture, but this week his blog seems to be where the interesting material is found.]

Bruce Bartlett, author of the conservative anti-Bush book Impostor : How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, has written to Andrew Sullivan about Bush being "loyal". Excerpts:

I disagree with your characterization of Bush as being famously loyal — a view so widely stated that you can be excused for repeating it. Bush is loyal ONLY to toadies, suck-ups and sycophants. Anyone who shows an ounce of independence — or loyalty to the country above loyalty to him — is punished or dispensed with ...

... loyalty with Bush is strictly a one-way street: total loyalty is demanded, but none is ever really offered in return. [Kevin Drum has said that several times, going back as far as 2003. A B C D]

... I have never understood why so many people — both inside and outside the administration — continue to give Bush so much loyalty. I can only conclude that it is borne more from fear than agreement with his policies. I think there is genuine fear of crossing the president ...

Remember, Bush was his dad's political enforcer (and learned under the vicious Lee Atwater). Sullivan counters with the absurd:

Part of this may be due to the fact that Bush is personally a nice guy.

That aside, what Bartlett wrote (read the whole thing, it's not much) goes a long way towards explaining why the Republican controlled Congress has been so spineless.


posted by Quiddity at 3/19/2006 10:36:00 PM