IRONY WATCH…. Karl Rove, this week:
The top priorities for the Senator who will raise his right hand on January 20, 2009, and say “I do solemnly swear” are obvious: keeping America safe and growing the economy. Less obvious is how to create a White House where forceful debate can take place. Plain speaking, straight talk, and dissent must be encouraged….
Newsweek, 2005:
It’s a standing joke among the president’s top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States…. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty.
I’m also reminded of a Time interview with a “youngish” White House aide, described as a Bush favorite, who said, “The first time I told him he was wrong, he started yelling at me. Then I showed him where he was wrong, and he said, ‘All right. I understand. Good job.’ He patted me on the shoulder. I went and had dry heaves in the bathroom.”
Go ahead, Karl, tell us another one about the importance of “forceful debates,” in which “dissent must be encouraged” in the White House.
I had no idea he had such a sense of humor.
