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Newsweek: Bush Most 'Isolated' President
George W. Bush may be the most isolated president in modern history, at least since the late-stage Richard Nixon, write Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas and Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe in the December 19 issue of Newsweek. Lately, there are some signs that the White House is trying to dispel the image of the Bush Bubble (or Bunker), although Congressman Jack Murtha may disagree. When Murtha tried to write George W. Bush with some suggestions for fighting the Iraq war, as he had done for the president's father, the congressman's letter was ignored by the White House. Murtha, who has always preferred to operate behind the scenes, finally went public, calling for an orderly withdrawal from Iraq. The White House has made no attempt to reach out to Murtha since then. "None. None. Zero. Not one call," a baffled Murtha told Newsweek. "I don't know who the hell they're talking to. If they talked to people, they wouldn't get these outbursts. If they'd talked to me, it wouldn't have happened."
Whether Bush's advisers are quite as frank as they claim to be with the president is also questionable. And what Bush actually hears and takes in, however, is not clear. In this week's cover story, "Bush's World-The Isolated
Story Continues Below President: Can He Change?" Thomas and Wolffe examine the Bush Bubble and analyze the historical connections of past presidents' governing styles and their influence on Bush's leadership sense. "I'm sure he was informed by the experiences he saw when his dad was president," Bush's current chief of staff, Andy Card, told Newsweek. "And that's one reason why he has confided in me." Bush, unlike his father, who every week or so before the '91 gulf war, would invite Murtha - a critical supporter for the elder Bush on Capitol Hill - along with other Hill leaders, to the White House. "He would listen to all the bitching from everybody, Republicans and Democrats, and then he would do what he thought was right. I led the fight for the '91 war," Murtha says. "I led the fight, for Christ's sake." A White House aide, who like virtually all White House officials refused to be identified for fear of antagonizing the president, says that Murtha was a lost cause anyway and dismisses the notion that Bush is isolated or out of touch.
Still, the complaints don't just come from Democrats: Sen. Richard Lugar, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pointedly told reporters that Bush needs to "have much more of a cadre of people in both houses, from both parties" visiting the White House "very frequently." Lugar cited Bill Clinton as the model. In his public comments, Bush for the first time is acknowledging that the war in Iraq has not gone quite as well as hoped for. And some kind of a cabinet shake-up is likely in the New Year. Yet such concessions may be more show than substance. White House officials, as well as one of his closest friends (also speaking anonymously so as not to complicate relations with the president), say that Bush remains sure that he is on the proper course in Iraq and that ultimately he will be vindicated by history.
Editor's note:
Inside Cover Stories
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