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 ... With the publication of this immensely readable, witty, compact yet amply-documented book, Begala shows why we should all tremble if Bush is elected to the White House.I'm more amazed than ever that Bush has dared to make "character" an issue in his campaign. As Begala's book attests, the red thread running through Bush's life and record is gross irresponsibility born of privilege. I already knew, for example, that Bush evaded the draft and used his father's influence to jump the waiting list for the national guard. But I was shocked to learn that Bush never showed up during the whole year that he was ordered to report to the Alabama National Guard. What's more, Bush told a press conference last June that he "didn't remember" what he did that year in Alabama. Really? The WHOLE year? (Why should that year be hazier than the two years after graduation he spent, in his words, "drinking and carousing and fumbling around")? Begala's discussion of Bush's business ventures is short but snappy. We learn about Bush's first foray, in which he raised, and promptly lost, millions of dollars invested by his father's friends-- and then sold this disaster dubbed "El Busto", by then worth just $38,000, to another of Poppy's friends for $1 million. Even more astonishing, we learn that Bush engaged in but was never prosecuted or even reproached for INSIDER TRADING in 1990 while a director of Harken Energy. He didn't even comply with the law requiring him to report the sale until eight months after the deadline. (Unfortunately the press is too busy dissecting "important issues" like open mikes and verbal gaffes to investigate commercial hanky panky). As head of the Texas Rangers, Bush persuaded the citizens of Arlington to raise their taxes to pay for a new stadium, while the Rangers retained all the profits once it opened. Well, the people's loss was Bush's gain. For some strange reason, Bush's partners allowed him to increase his share of his holdings from 2 percent to 12 percent without Bush investing more of his own money. So, while citizens got the shaft, Bush reaped a windfall profit of over $14 million principally on shares he never bought. For doing what? For trading Sammy Sosa? Worse than that, Bush's meager record of PUBLIC service also comes across more like public plunder. His tax plan would give the richest 1% NEARLY HALF of all tax cuts, while "most average working families would get about 60 cents per day." As Begala, citing UPI, notes, he's squandered Texas's budget surplus: "the first time in nine years that Texas has suffered a budget pinch." Thanks to Bush, say 44 environmental groups in Texas, Houston has the dirtiest air in America, causing hundreds of premature deaths each year. The problem is so bad that asthma rates among Houston's inner-city children have doubled in only two years! Small wonder too, because as Begala points out, Bush's idea of trusting people with responsibility is trusting pro-industry, anti-regulation people to occupy EVERY SINGLE position in his environmental agency. And I guess he also trusts us not to notice. EDUCATION PRESIDENT? A cruel hoax. As Begala tells us, Bush already broke his promise to Texas voters to increase public education's share of the budget from 45% to 60%; it declined instead. Not only did Bush fail to give schools the money he promised, but he even tried to pinch $47 million from the teacher's pension fund to cover administrative costs normally funded from general revenues. He admitted in 1998: "Higher education is not my priority." Nor is the hiring of new teachers to reduce class size, universal prekindergarten, teacher testing and many other proposals Gore champions. Bush proudly chose as his running mate a man who was one of very few in the House to vote against Head Start, free immunizations for the poor, college student aid, and lunch programs for the neediest children. Most damning are the words coming from Bush's own mouth: "I've never been a long-term planner about anything. I have lived my life with more of a short-term focus." That's in part because, as his own aides admit, Bush has an extremely short attention span. In other words, he's lazy. He can't be bothered to read 10-page policy papers. "I do need somebody to tell me where Kosovo is," he told the Manchester Guardian. I suppose reading the newspaper or looking at a map would be asking too much. (And what a fine role model for our students.) Too bad Bush didn't ask his adviser and full-time security blanket Condoleeza Rice about our delicately-crafted Taiwan policy, in place since Nixon. No president, including Dubya's Poppy, has ever been so reckless as to explicitly pledge to honor a defense pact with Taiwan. Begala writes: "Bush darn near committed us to a war with the largest country in the world." Next to that, I suppose the fear that Bush would make America a laughingstock is small potatoes. Still, I winced when I learned Bush told a Slovakian journalist: "The only thing I know about Slovakia is what I learned first-hand from your foreign minister, who came to Texas." Problem is, he met with the PRIME MINISTER of SLOVENIA. After reading Begala's book I wondered: How can we expect Bush to keep government agencies honest and accountable if he can't be bothered with more than brief assurances and summaries spoon-fed by aides? I agree with conservative columnist George Will, who sees Dubya as a careless, reckless adolescent. If he can't bother to prepare adequately for the most important job in the world, why should Americans bother to vote for him?
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Like his campaign consulting firm partner, James Carville, Begala fights political battles through misleading soundbites. There may be much to like or dislike in Bush's policies, but there is no serious analysis to be found here. The title comes from a Bush verbal grammatical error from the end of a long day of campaigning, and this choice of title shows the sophmoric nature of the book.
