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White House Morale Has Plummeted Ronald Kessler Democrats have pounced on the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys to create the impression that the White House did something wrong. In fact, the firings were no more improper than the Clinton administration's dismissal of 93 U.S. Attorneys in 1993. Like Cabinet officers, U.S. Attorneys are political appointees serving at the pleasure of the president. Moreover, a fair reading of the emails relating to the firings makes it clear that, rightly or wrongly, the eight were singled out because of job performance.
But what is disturbing about the firings is that, because of the clumsy way they were handled and the subsequent contradictory accounts by the Justice Department, the administration turned Republican allies into enemies and gave the Democrats an opening to manufacture a scandal. There is a pattern here. Too often, Republican insiders say, the Bush administration has thumbed its nose at its biggest supporters and created self-inflicted wounds. The selection of Harriet Miers to be a Supreme Court justice is but one example. While President Bush knew that she had a conservative judicial philosophy, Miers had no track record to demonstrate it to the conservative base. Before nominating her, the administration failed to consult with conservatives whose support was needed during the confirmation process. In the end, conservatives felt her nomination had betrayed them. In part, that mistrust of Bush has lingered among conservatives because the White House doesn't seem to understand that friends cannot be taken for granted. Story Continues Below
Ironically, Bush himself could not be more loyal to his personal friends. Unlike most politicians, who typically have few real friends, Bush maintains a wide circle of close friends going back to high school and college days. At the same time, he sees himself as a CEO rather than a politician, making tough decisions but not necessarily wasting time schmoozing with members of Congress, the press, or Republican stalwarts. That attitude has had disastrous consequences. While there has been a slight improvement of late, the White House attitude toward the press has been, "When we need you, we'll call you." Thus, even friendly reporters are not given access and do not get their phone calls returned. Like most human beings, they take out their resentment on those who make their jobs tough. To be sure, the liberal media will always try to portray a Republican president in a bad light. But reporters who are fed behind-the-scenes tidbits find it harder to write one-sided stories. Lately, Bush has invited members of Congress to the residence for drinks, but that has been too little, too late. Previous presidents have wooed legislators with invitations to Camp David. Bush will have none of that, reserving Camp David for visits with genuine friends. Going back to the early days of the administration, longtime Washington Republicans—not to mention Democrats—have complained that the Bush White House does not consult them. "My perception is a lot of those people want to say, 'I was at the White House this morning,'" one top aide to Bush told me. "They get to trade on that and have cachet. We're not here to puff up the reputations of people who want to trade on their access." Because of that attitude, the personal relationships that are necessary to succeed in any job simply are not there. Perhaps most perplexing, even when it has a good case to make, the White House sometimes fails to communicate it to conservative supporters. In pushing the No Child Left Behind Act, the White House refuses to say publicly what is really behind the law—an effort to reintroduce phonics, or sounding out letters, to reading instruction. The idea is that if children are tested and schools suffer consequences if they don't do well, school systems will turn to the only reading instruction method that works—phonics. In the case of the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, each lawyer who was let go is a Republican who was chosen in part because of connections to Bush administration officials. If there was a question about their performance, the proper approach would have been to space out the dismissals over many months, giving each lawyer a chance to find a new job. Instead, the Justice Department dumped them like political enemies and embarrassed them publicly. They quickly began airing their grievances in the press. "We have enough to deal with without causing our own problems," says Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist and former Bush White House aide. "There is no excuse for self-inflicted wounds. Exercising raw power because you can is not acceptable. Nor does a go-it-alone strategy work. You have to have a reciprocal relationship with Congress, the press, and your base constituencies. Especially when your standing in the polls is at historic lows and you have difficult work ahead to advance your causes, you can't take anyone for granted." Meanwhile, morale at the White House has plummeted. Only Bush himself is able to raise the spirits of those around him. What is especially unfortunate is that, like Ronald Reagan, President Bush will one day be seen as one of the great presidents because he has made us safer. As outlined in a Nov. 8, 2006 NewsMax article, Bush Policies Will Not Change, Bush has transformed the approach to fighting terrorism. As a result, some 5,000 terrorists have been rolled up since 9/11. That success story, in turn, is a major reason we have not been attacked since 9/11—and far more important than the latest political fiasco.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of NewsMax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you FREE via e-mail. Go Here Now. © NewsMax 2007. All rights reserved. Editor's note:
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