'The Asbestos President'

[Carl Remick]

[The establishmentarian NY Times certainly has great limitations as a source 
of news and commentary, but the paper is in a rare feisty mood today with a 
number of good articles on the triumphal, lunatic conservatism that holds 
sway in US society now.  E.g., I appreciate Maureen Dowd's shock and chagrin 
in the piece below about the Bush's Presidency growing menace; I can think 
of no remark more sobering than Dowd's statement:  "... Henry Kissinger 
{!!!} once called Mr. Rumsfeld the most ruthless man he knew, all global 
despots included."]

The Asbestos President

By Maureen Dowd

Washington -- Being witty about poisoned drinking water isn't easy. It 
requires a certain obtuse savoir-faire.

Our president gave it a go Thursday night at a press dinner here.

"As you know, we're studying safe levels for arsenic in drinking water," he 
told the crowd of radio and TV correspondents at the Washington Hilton. "To 
base our decision on sound science, the scientists told us we needed to test 
the water glasses of about 3,000 people. Thank you for participating."

I guess a guy who can yuk it up about a woman he has executed in Texas can 
yuk it up about anything.

But it was a creepy moment.

It worked for Erin Brockovich to joke about the carcinogens in the water 
enviro-villains were sipping because she wanted to get the poison out. W. 
wants to keep the poison in -- to help the enviro-villains who contributed 
to his campaign.

Forgive me, Al Gore.

I used to think you were striving too geekily to be Millennial Man. The Palm 
Pilot on your belt. The Blackberry. The Earth-cam you dreamed of. Citing 
"Futurama" as your favorite show. The obsessions about global warming and 
the information highway. Boldly choosing the first Jewish running mate.

But now I'm going hungry for a shred of modernity. Bush II has reeled 
backward so fast, economically, environmentally, globally, culturally, it's 
redolent of Dorothy clicking her way from the shimmering spires of Oz to a 
depressed black-and-white Kansas.

With the guidance of his regents, the Duke of Halliburton and Cardinal 
Rumsfeld, W. has set off the specter of a mushroom cloud of carcinogens and 
carbon dioxide emissions, nuclear power and "China Syndrome" fears, 
rapacious drilling and retrenchment on women's rights, the missile shield, 
spy tensions and the cold war.

The son has become what the father used to privately deride as an 
"extra-chromosome" conservative.

W.'s press conference on Thursday boiled down to one exhortation: "Let's 
hear it for corporations!"

This administration is so hawkish that Colin Powell is cast as a 
sandals-and-beads peacenik. And John Ashcroft threatens to fry the F.B.I. 
spy.

The Clinton team wrestled with the messy grays of a post-cold-war world. The 
Bush team decided it was easier to bring back the cold war.

"These guys are linear," says a top official from Bush I. "They have to have 
black and white. They have to have bogeymen."

One veteran cold warrior who served under several presidents told me he was 
shocked that Bush II had refrozen the cold war.

"They've turned the clock back to 1983," he said. "It doesn't make any sense 
to slap the Russians around. They're already on their knees. We don't have 
to humiliate them. We need to use some finesse, to allow them some dignity.

"The thing I always hated about Clinton foreign policy was they seemed to be 
making it up as they went along. But these guys seem to be doing that, too. 
They are negative toward old policies, without coming up with anything 
positive."

The regents moved quickly to cast the administration in the gray-flannel 
image of their salad days. (One Republican says that Henry Kissinger once 
called Mr. Rumsfeld the most ruthless man he knew, all global despots 
included.)

Not satisfied with smacking around the Russians, humiliating Christie 
Whitman, downsizing Condi Rice and brushing back Colin Powell, the 
Cheney-Rumsfeld axis has no patience for the plaints of health-conscious 
yuppies, either.

You can just hear Rummy, slugging back a Scotch with Cheney in the Oval 
after they've put the Kid to bed, grousing about the gazillion dollars' 
worth of investments he has to sell to avoid a conflict, and growling: "Real 
men can drink twice that much arsenic. And how soon can we get some lead 
back in the lousy paint?"

What's next? Asbestos, DDT, bomb shelters, filterless cigarettes? Patti 
Page? Rummy griping that Laura Bush is too assertive?

W. never seemed happier than he did on Friday at the White House, surrounded 
by the old-timers from the Baseball Hall of Fame, basking in memories of his 
beloved 50's.

He is only our second boomer president, but his White House needs Geritol. 
He seems older than his sprite of a father. He goes to bed early and, except 
for sports, is oddly disconnected from the culture. He seems to have no 
engagement with contemporary America, except by virtue of being the 
president of the United States.

[end]

Carl

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