By John Tabin on 4.29.05 @ 1:47AM
A relaxed President dropped a few bombs last night.
Ed Chen of the Los Angeles Times and Bill Sammon of the
Washington Times both asked the President about the tenor
of partisan politics in Washington. "We like to remind you," said
Sammon, "that you came to Washington hoping to change the
tone."
But there is one place in Washington where the tone has indeed
changed: at the prime-time Presidential press conference. With the
election behind him, Bush is as relaxed as he's ever been with
reporters. Our esteemed press corps, in turn, no longer in a
position to add "asked the question that sunk the Bush
Administration" to a resume, is much less inclined to go for the
gotcha. At Bush's press
conference a year ago, a third of the questions were variations
on "You've failed, correct?" There was much less of that last
night, though Chen came close, asking if Bush "personally bear[s]
any responsibility in having contributed to this atmosphere" ("I'm
sure there are some people that don't like me," the President
answered drolly).
The big news of the night is that the President is now for a
kind of means-testing of Social Security benefits, though he didn't
use the term; "I propose a Social Security system in the future
where benefits for low-income workers will grow faster than
benefits for people who are better off" were his words. (He did say
the program would be "means-based," but only in response to the
final question, when most of the networks had already cut away.)
This is a reform that could conceivably make it through Congress,
though many in Washington are now convinced that personal
retirement accounts, at least cut out of payroll taxes (as opposed
to add-on accounts), are dead in the water. Had the President
gotten as specific about his plan two months ago as he did last
night, he'd be better positioned to pass something close to his
preferred package of reforms now; the "everything is on the table"
strategy was clearly a blunder.
The smaller bit of news was that Bush politely rejected the
Family Research Council position, as characterized by David Gregory
of NBC, that "judicial filibusters are an attack against people of
faith": "No. I think people oppose my nominees because of judicial
philosophy," said Bush. Perhaps the President's entirely
predictable and pedestrian statement that "faith is a personal
issue" and that he doesn't "condemn somebody in the political
process because they may not agree with me on religion" will calm a
few nerves in some of the more hysterical corners of the
commentariat. (Andrew Sullivan appears momentarily
pleased.)
The prime-time press conference is a strange creature,
particularly when, as Ann Althouse and Glenn Reynolds were complaining
yesterday, the dominant political issues of the day are less than
scintillating to the average American. Most of the questions are
forgettable even for news junkies, who've already heard most of
what gets said in these venues anyway. If I were the networks, I
would have cut out early for the 9 o'clock programming, too. And
if I were the President, I would resist the urge to do this all
that often.
topics:
Taxes, Social Security, Religion
