I Cogitate
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George Bush and his variant Oedipus complex
Brit Hume recently interviewed George Bush. Dan Froomkin, consistently one of the straightshooters in the mainstream media, offered some thoughts about that duet and about the relationship George Bush has with his father in the article below--but first, my take:.
This relationship, however much minimized, provides such a tremendous impetus for the Bush Adminstration's actions, reactions and Bush's personal behavior. Mind you, it isn't the sole thrust behind the what and how of Bush '43 but it is the most integral factor. Just look at the arc of George Bush's life--from family drunk and perennial #2 son, to disdain for East Coast elitism while gladly rubbing elbows with such at both Harvard and Yale, to utilizing his father's personal and business contacts to jump into but fail in the oil business, to a thanks-to-daddy corporate board sitter spot while having zero input to offer, to posing as the front man for investors in purchasing a baseball team, et al. This is a saga of a ne'er-do-well, all the while having to rely on father to bail him out of various and continued scrapes.
Talk about living under a shadow--make that a voluminous shadow! While containing some truth, the talk about Bill Clinton being the 'neediest' president in recent times is just that--George Bush is the most psychologically impoverished person to occupy the White House in the last 25 or so years. Tragically, this country and the entire world are paying the price for this.
This family 'dividend' is why we saw the disdainful reaction from George Bush towards the Iraq Study Group that we did. It's Dad, once again, having to come to the rescue of his now 60-year-old son. What took place prior to George Bush assuming the presidency is absolutely coloring, almost dictating, what has taken place the past six years. The normal, accepting sage advice from an elder, is not the normal in George Bush-land.
On to Froomkin:
Bush Denies Reaching Out to Dadand
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
December 5, 2006
Even as Washington's punditocracy relishes the storyline of the elder-statesman father riding to the hapless son's rescue, President Bush insisted yesterday that he doesn't talk shop with his dad -- and certainly doesn't ask for his advice.
Bush's first one-on-one interview since his brutal rebuff at the hands of the voters on Nov. 7 was a tame affair, thanks to Fox News anchor Brit Hume. Here's the transcript and the video.
But when Hume brought up the issue of his father's influence, Bush responded with a forced grin, a clenched fist and a somewhat petulant response: "I'm the commander in chief," he said.
And Bush's explanation for why he doesn't talk policy with his dad simply doesn't hold water.
"You know, I love my dad," Bush said. "But he understands what I know, that the level of information I have relative to the level of information most other people have, including himself, is significant."
Oh, please. That's obviously not the real reason.
So here are two more-likely possibilities: Either Bush does talk to his dad and doesn't want people to know; or he truly has no interest in what his dad thinks.
The latter still strikes me as the most likely. Bush, after all, remains the son whose actions can be seen in large part as a reaction to his father -- rather than an homage...
...Here is the relevant excerpt from the Fox News interview, with a few stage directions:
Hume: "The presence of Baker on this commission and the important role he plays, the emergence now of Bob Gates as the Rumsfeld successor, has given rise to a widespread feeling that the men who advised your father are now emerging as critical to you and that your father's influence is all over this."
Bush: "Yeah." [Bush grins, but his raised left fist is clenched tightly.]
Hume: "What do you say to that?"
Bush: "I say that [pause, exasperated shrug] you know, I'm the commander in chief. I make decisions based upon what I think is best to achieve our objectives, and that, uh --" [shakes his head]
Hume: "Was your father involved in the decision to name Gates?"
Bush: [Eyebrows shoot up defensively] "I asked him what kind of man Gates was with him, because of course he knows him."
Hume: "Did he know ahead of time? Ahead of the day? That you were gonna --"
Bush: "No."
Hume: "He didn't."
Bush: "No.."Go here to read the rest.
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