Another Paranoia Presidency
George Bush is the back-slapping, joke-telling, nickname-giving antithesis of the dour Richard Nixon. But his administration is showing itself to be crafted after the same secrets-protecting and enemies-listing of 1974’s Paranoia Presidency.
The current flap over whether Karl Rove did or did not out Valerie Plame is academically interesting, but no one is surprised that Rove, Bush's #1 White House operative, would be capable of such a thing. This week’s revelations of career officer dismay within the Pentagon concerning our definition of torture is greeted more with a knowing nod than disbelief. Bush’s preparation of a recess-appointment for the controversial John Bolton would be an outrage in the Clinton administration but hardly gets noticed in this one. A war based on increasing evidence of false pretenses? So, what else is new?
The same level of accepting the unacceptable surrounds this presidency as Nixon's.
The difference is, Nixon was not a friendly guy. Nobody wanted to go q…