“A Red-Ass In A Hurry”

by tristero

Dave Neiwert succinctly discusses Bush’s character now that the blinders have been removed from the American public. David also links to this important, famous Gail Sheehy article in Vanity Fair from October, 2000 which, sadly, the country has learned far too late, is all-too-accurate. It’s worth reading again 5 1/2 years later::

Once, after his mother banished him from the golf course, she turned to Hannah and declared, “That boy is going to have optical rectosis.” What did that mean? “She said, ‘A shitty outlook on life.'”

Even if he loses, his friends say, he doesn’t lose. He’ll just change the score, or change the rules, or make his opponent play until he can beat him. “If you were playing basketball and you were playing to 11 and he was down, you went to 15,” says Hannah, now a Dallas insurance executive. “If he wasn’t winning, he would quit. He would just walk off…. It’s what we called Bush Effort: If I don’t like the game, I take my ball and go home. Very few people can get away with that.” So why could George get away with it? “He was just too easygoing and too pleasant.”

Another fast friend, Roland Betts, acknowledges that it is the same in tennis. In November 1992, Bush and Betts were in Santa Fe to host a dinner party, but they had just enough time for one set of doubles. The former Yale classmates were on opposite sides of the net. “There was only one problem—my side won the first set,” recalls Betts. “O.K., then we’re going two out of three,” Bush decreed. Bush’s side takes the next set. But Betts’s side is winning the third set when it starts to snow. Hard, fat flakes. The catering truck pulls up. But Bush won’t let anybody quit. “He’s pissed. George runs his mouth constantly,” says Betts indulgently. “He’s making fun of your last shot, mocking you, needling you, goading you—he never shuts up!” They continued to play tennis through a driving snowstorm.

It is something of an in-joke with Bush’s friends and family. “In reality we all know who won, but George wants to go further to see what happens,” says an old family friend, venture capitalist and former MGM chairman Louis “Bo” Polk Jr. “George would say, ‘Play that one over,’ or ‘I wasn’t quite ready.’ The overtimes are what’s fun, so you make your own. When you go that extra mile or that extra point … you go to a whole new level.”

Yessirree, that’s Bush, alright. And for those folks who think this is merely the Cheney administration with a total puppet for president, please recall the fall of 2000 and the numerous congressional battles, and the total ignoring of any and all laws. Then re-read the above. That’s Bush’s personality at work, my friends. Yes, it’s Cheney too, but don’t misunderestimate Bush’s influence.

And then there’s this, which gives us a sense of the seriousness with which the man takes his job. For in fact, as Bush sees it the presidency is just a necessary evil on the journey to his true destiny:

“He wanted to be Kenesaw Mountain Landis,” America’s first baseball commissioner, legendary for his power and dictatorial style. “I would have guessed that when George grew up he would be the commissioner of baseball,” says Hannah. “I am still convinced that that is his goal.”

One assumes that this close pal of the Republican presidential candidate is speaking with tongue in cheek. But no. “Running for president is a résumé-enhancer for being the commissioner of baseball,” he insists. “And it’s a whole lot better job.”

Truer words have never been written about the character of George W. Bush. No wonder that memo in August 6, 2001 didn’t make an impression. And then:

He proudly rejects introspection and has no interest in looking back over the “youthful indiscretions” that characterized his first 44 years. In interviews Bush repeatedly says, “I’m not one of those people who say, ‘Gosh, if I’d have done it differently, I’d have … ‘” He pauses for a few seconds to contemplate his life, then confidently concludes, “I can’t think of anything I’d do differently.”

Man, that’s so painful to read now, because we know that in a few years he will stand in front of the nation, having launched a useless war, having ignored intelligence of an imminent bin Laden attack, and be totally stumped when asked to name a single mistake he had made.

Be sure to read the entire Sheehy article if you haven’t already.The article’s long, but the ending will give you tremendous insight into Bush’s plans to tackle the related problems of air pollution and global climate change.