Brown and Silent Shrub


John Dickerson has some thoughts about the June 23, 1972 August 28, 2005 tape featuring Nixon ordering the coverup Shrub displaying a level of attention commonly associated with toddlers--well, to be fair, he didn't drool--at least obviously--nor did he start smashing things...he just sat there...sort of like, as Schroeder points out, the way he...sat around, doing nothing...on 9/11.

We see the president all the time in public settings, giving speeches, shaking hands, looking concerned. But this footage is fascinating because it is the first video I can recall of the president at work in private. It's our chance to see how the image of the president painted by his allies compares with the actual man. And the result is somewhat alarming. Based on what I'd been told by White House aides over the years, I expected to see the president asking piercing questions that punctured the fog of the moment and inspired bold action. Bush's question-asking talents are a central tenet of the president's hagiography. He may not be much for details, say aides, but he can zero in on a weak spot in a briefing and ask out-of-the-box questions. I have been repeatedly told over the years that he once interrupted a briefing on national defense to pose a 30,000-foot stumper: What is the function of the Department of Defense?

So, surely during this briefing about an impending natural disaster, the president would have had a few pointed inquiries. The experts assembled in boxes on his screen like guests on Hollywood Squares had just told him the coming hurricane "was the big one" and talked about "the greatest potential for large loss of life." Yet according to the Associated Press, which is the only press organization that has reviewed the video, Bush didn't ask a single question in the briefing, but told officials "we are fully prepared."...

The president has been at pains recently to show the public that he has grown and adapted while in office. When talking about Iraq, he has increased his references to lessons learned. Wednesday night, he responded to ABC's Elizabeth Vargas' questions about the slow federal response to Katrina by pointing out that the administration had learned the lessons of its failures. But learning lessons depends on asking questions—the right ones and a lot of them. Let's hope one of the questions the president asked after the catastrophe was whether he had asked the right questions before it.

The only available evidence shows this administration hasn't learned a thing. And besides, the job ISN'T an entry level position. It's the goddamned presidency. Don't know about y'all, but I expect the office holder to display some qualifications from the outset. The only thing Shrub has demonstrated in the last five years is that he's not qualified to be dog catcher.