Novak: Bush giving CEOs, "Administration," bad name

Chicago Sun Times

Bob Novak, Prince of Darkness and flipper of deep cover CIA operatives thinks George Bush is winning ugly.

A senior Republican senator who avoids the headlines and tries to help President Bush as much as possible was discussing with me two weeks ago the problems of seeking Social Security reform. Then he said something that surprised me: "I have been around awhile, and this is the worst administration at congressional relations that I have ever been associated with."

I checked with several Republicans in both the House and Senate, and all agreed more or less with that assessment. Last week, I asked an administration official who is willing to speak his mind so long as his name won't be used. "I don't know that much about Congress," he said, "but I do believe this is a dysfunctional administration."

The worst? Dysfunctional? What about the praise of the strategic mastery that carried Bush to a second term? Besides, is Bush not widely popular in Republican ranks? Does he not lead a party pretty well united on issues and ideology? All that is true. The dirty little secret, however, is that this administration succeeds despite chronic malfunctioning, and this more often than not is a matter of bungled personnel decisions.

Unfilled jobs have been a chronic problem in this administration -- especially at the Treasury, where several key posts always seem empty. Recently, the vacant offices have included deputy secretary and undersecretary for international affairs. The latest of multiple vacancies in the deputy's post occurred when Samuel Bodman was named secretary of energy without anyone ready to replace him at Treasury.

The number of unfilled Pentagon positions now rival those at Treasury. Since Paul Wolfowitz had been earmarked as World Bank president for some time, it might be supposed that his successor as deputy secretary of defense would be standing beside him when he was named. But that is not the way the Bush White House works...

Okay, so Dubya actually is living up quite nicely to the "CEO" moniker. The cartoony dark side of it, anyway: Claim delegation and organizational fitness, praise "open doors" and parrot the words of entrepreneurialism, then manage like Leonid Brezhnev. But he's not winning ugly, Bob. He's winning-by-forfeit. 3 1/2 years ago, Democratic leadership parked their brains, and their cojones, in a mini storage outside Altoona. They lost the key or something.

Just like his Texas Rangers and Harken deals; brush cleared for him, it's Bush in a walk. What a problem solver; what a Titan of Business acumen.