Safer Than You Were Four Years Ago? Part II/Rove's Losing His Touch

Good New York Times editorial today on the administration's cynical embrace of the rhetoric of the 9/11 Commission report (they actually propose to gut the commission's recommendations. Money-mun:

There are a variety of credible ways to construct the job [of National Intelligence Czar*], whether in the cabinet or not, but what Mr. Bush proposed is not one of them. His intelligence director would be in the worst of all worlds: cut out of the president's inner circle and lacking any real power. Andrew Card Jr., Mr. Bush's chief of staff, said the post would not carry real authority over the intelligence agencies' budgets or intelligence jobs in the Pentagon, the Justice Department and other agencies. The decision bore the unmistakable stamp of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was never going to willingly give up control of appointments or his share of the intelligence budget: $32 billion of the overall $40 billion.

The lib-ruhl Times isn't the only paper that's talking about this; I'm frankly astonished that this hasn't made its way into Kerry's stump speech yet [Kerry still doesn't mention that the middle class tax burden has increased in the last four years--ed.]. Either Rove is losing the reins, or he doesn't understand that making really, really stupid proposals on the one issue where Bush is supposed to enjoy an advantage is not good political strategy. Recall that Bush initially opposed the creation of the 9/11 Commission (flip-flopping?), and refused to testify in front of it publicly, or without Cheney holding his hand.



*I didn't know what term to use besides "czar," because that's what people are calling it, and besides, we already have a Director of Central Intelligence. But czar is a Russian word for emperor; it doesn't have a place in a democratic political lexicon, and it doesn't even make sense when describing a Cabinet official or lower-tier officer in the executive branch. I vote for a ban on the word "czar" until we come up with a replacement.