President Bush admits failure: The 'tone' in Washington has not changed

Here we go: Who is responsible for the "tone" in Washington these days?

President Bush campaigned for the White House eight years ago promising, like others, to change that oft-maligned "tone."

In an interview recounted in Bob Woodward's latest inspection of the Bush administration, "The War Within," the president acknowledges that it didn't happen, to some extent a result of the debate over the war in Iraq.

He said, as recounted by Mike Allen, writing for Politico.com:

… [T]his war has created a lot of really harsh emotion, out of which comes a lot of harsh rhetoric. And you know, one of my failures has been to change the tone in Washington. And it's the failures of others as well.

Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, expanded on the president's thinking today, telling reporters at the daily White House press briefing:

... [T]he president takes a lot of -- takes responsibility for it, but I don't know if he -- all the blame belongs at his feet. I've been a spokesperson for the president for many years.  I have never once had to apologize on his behalf for any personal attacks or demeaning thing he has said about any one individual.

She added, however: "I see on a daily basis members of Congress from the Democrats who say very demeaning things about him, and it's not constructive at all."

Figuring she may have had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in mind, Countdown to Crawford passed along her comments to their offices.

From Jim Manley, Reid's spokesman, came this response to the request for comment:

President Bush presides over an administration and party that slanders war heroes as unpatriotic, outs [a]CIA agent and is generally hostile toward anyone that disagrees with his stubborn ideology. And after the disgraceful display of personal attacks and name calling at last week's Republican convention, it is safe to say that not only did President Bush not change the tone, he's made it worse.

Brendan Daly, Pelosi's spokesman, said it was ironic to be considering the issue when Republicans were expressing "phony outrage ... over this ridiculous 'lipstick on a pig' controversy.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo of President Bush with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the Oval Office today: Dennnis Brack  Bloomberg News

Comments

[pat nicolello]

what if John McCain got elected and then charged Bush with war crimes? There was enough presidential intell briefings coming to sr bush stating saddam had NO wmd's for years and years and jr bush still took our nation to war. W KNEW !! Does anyone remember the housing push Bush had for so called "minoriorities". so all then dems jump on board as bush allows inflaton in the housing market go rampant. Greenspan was to busy writing books saying "the iraqi war was about oil" to raise the intrest rates from it 35 yr low And the rest of us were shopping on our home equity lines of credit. All bush and cheney posessions need to be taken from them in a rico action mr mccain. stand up and be a man........be an american!

[Durant]

That administration knowingly knew the PRA requires the administration to preserve presidential records under certain specifications; missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating back to 2003 sent via a non-government domain hosted on an e-mail server not controlled by the federal government? This man is the trigger for America to wake up call to all of us, all of the world; government does not does not work. Fact: Bush administration prepares to leave office and may be ready to expunge the record on its tenure.

[dr david hill]

But the question on everyone's lips should be on the anniversary of 9/11, is Bush going out with a big 'Bang' in Pakistan?

FOR TODAY he has authorized that US special forces can undertake incursions into Pakistan WITHOUT even the approval of their government.

This is something that he wishes to do and what a better way to leave office than to start a new little war for his friends in the defence industry. Another nice little earner I would say before he leaves office and additional personal security for the future (no I don’t mean our security either) !

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity (WIFC)
Bern, Switzerland

[Gerti Hamilton]

Division of the country started with Rove's style of politics. The Republicans are doing the same thing this election. I can't believe McCain speaks of honor and is running a despicable campaign. The media is contributing by wanting Obama to be more entertaining. It's incredible that the American people don't care about the dire condition this country is in, they want to be titilated by Annie Oakley. It doesn't matter about distortions or outright lies or that she can't even speak with the news media until being coached in what to say. How bad does it have to be before people get a clue.