The Second-Term Syndrome
I don’t know what it is about second terms. Maybe George The First was lucky not to have had one. They trip up every administration, from Nixon through Reagan, Clinton and now George The Second. It’s possible I suppose that there’s a particular fear in attacking a first-term president, thoughts of retribution, a concern that it might all go wrong and come back to haunt at the polls. It's also possible that the losers are so stunned by their loss that they don't really get on track until a second term.
Because that’s what it’s all about, re-election. Theirs versus ours, however they and us are defined. Special prosecutors burst out of the underbrush like driven pheasants in second terms.
And yet we are early into this president’s second term and, while the scandals revolve around who did or didn’t whisper in Robert Novak’s ear or Tom DeLay’s difficulties in Texas, the big one, the guy everyone edges away from as quietly as they can is Jack Abramoff. Jack is the big news. File all …