WASHINGTON -- Did you catch Senator Harry Reid's reaction to
President George W. Bush's replacement of Chief of Staff Andy Card
with Budget Director Joshua Bolten? Reid, the Democratic leader in
the Senate, called Bolten a "failure." It could have been worse. He
might have inveighed against Bolten's terrible temper. In fact, the
Democrats still might sound the alarm over reports of Bolten's
terrible temper.
Reid called Bolten a failure the same day that the Conference
Board's consumer index showed consumer confidence climbing to a
near four-year high. Obviously consumers know whereof they speak.
The stock market is rising. Growth continues at a healthy pace.
Unemployment is down. Inflation is low. Even the deficit as a
percentage of the GDP is receding. It took consumers a while to
penetrate the Democrats' balderdash, but now they recognize what
they might have been recognizing for the last five years. In
America things are good and the economy is getting better.
Yet, for grumpy Harry and the dismal Democrats Bolten is a
failure. I would not be surprised to hear them raise the specter of
a new Republican conspiracy. Harry could warn that the Bush
Administration has come under the spell of "Boltenism." There is
Josh Bolten roaming the White House, shouting at aides. And there
is another Bolten terrorizing the United Nations, the shocking
Ambassador John R. Bolton. His temper is a matter of world history.
The Democratic leadership will not be fooled by the Boltens'
exchange of vowels. Will we soon see Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
appearing on the "Today" show urging the media to look into this
proliferation of a "Vast Bolten Conspiracy"? I would not rule it
out. She has made similarly bizarre utterances, and many in the
media have fallen for it. Expect Al Franken on Air America to
excite his audience against Boltenism, if there still is an Air
America.
Air America is the liberal talk radio network that sprang up a
couple of years back to replace Rush Limbaugh and his
co-conspirators in right-wing talk radio. It has not fared very
well, but then neither has the liberal wing of the Democratic Party
when it has faced the public in a two-way race. The "Angry Left" is
Senator Reid's contemporary version of the New Deal. It has yet to
contribute anything to the commonweal other than ignorance and
hysteria.
I recently encountered the Angry Left myself while appearing on
C-Span's "Washington Journal." There I got not one call-in from a
liberal Democrat who was not, frankly, out of his mind. One caller
urged the murder of the President and the Vice President. Another
sounded like Harry and Hillary, insisting that America is the
victim of a right-wing conspiracy. Grover Norquist's Americans for
Tax Reform was mentioned as one of the culprits. It is all very
amusing to those of us who can still have a good laugh over
politics.
Listening to the liberals' irrational outbursts again puts me in
mind of a truth I discovered in the late 1990s, to wit: more than
being about interests, ideas, or principles, politics is for many a
matter of mental illness. It is about the need of many politically
minded people to have enemies. Senator Reid reminds us that Josh
Bolten is his enemy and John Bolton too. Boltenism could be the New
McCarthyism.
So much for the grumpy Senator's appraisal of Bolten's
replacement of Andy Card. The move reminded me of a memo President
Ronald Reagan received early in his second term from former
President Richard Nixon. The former president was advising him on
how to avoid a problem every second term president encounters,
namely how to avoid being a lame duck. Nixon believed an important
way to avoid the problem is to effect a personnel change on the
staff. The selfless Card was tired. It was a good time for him to
take a break. Bolten is relatively fresh and with his knowledge of
the budget he might be helpful to his boss in a key area necessary
to shore up his base for the autumn elections, excessive federal
spending.
The spendthrifts on Capitol Hill have been spending madly since
the first year of the Bush Administration. It is time this stopped.
Republicans have been as extravagant as Democrats. Perhaps this
fellow Bolten can put the arm on the Republicans or at least
encourage the President to veto some of the prodigality. There may
be hope for Boltenism after all.
topics:
Harry Reid, United Nations, NATO
