For a long time it's been assumed that Vice President Dick Cheney was the tail wagging the dog, the old pro who told the young White House how it was done.
Now it turns out that caricature may not be far off the mark.
A new book on Cheney by Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman reports that the vice president turned down a request from President Bush to take charge of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, shortly after that devastating storm made landfall in August 2005.
According to the book, Bush asked and Cheney said no.
Murray Waas of the Huffington Post obtained a copy of the still-secret book. The Post is shamelessly flakking excerpts from the book on page one of its newspaper. But some portions are still embargoed. Here's the Cheney one:
Days after the storm had passed, when he finally returned to Washington from Crawford, Bush assembled his senior staff in the Oval Office. He was going to set up a cabinet-level task force, he said.
"I asked Dick if he'd be interested in spearheading this," Bush announced. "Let's just say I didn't get the most positive response." Bush nodded ironically toward the vice president, putting on a show for the others: Card, Rove, Bartlett, Condi Rice. His expression, the tone of voice, had a hint of edge. Can you believe this guy?
Anyone who had face time with Bush said he was smarter than the public believed, and meaner. He spared Cheney the thunderbolts -- Rove got the worst of them, when Bush was in a mood to yell -- but now and then aides saw the president give Cheney the back of his hand.
"Will you at least go do a fact-finding trip for us?" Bush asked.
"That'll probably be the extent of it, Mr. President, unless you order otherwise," Cheney replied. He was the Cheshire Cat inverted, only the smile dissolving, the rest of him still in the chair.
If true, that anecdote is one of the most amazing in recent presidential history. Vice presidents are number twos. They do what they are told.
But, according to presidential counselor Dan Bartlett, "Cheney wanted nothing to do with it." Bartlett told the book's author that he liked the idea of sending Cheney to New Orleans, figuring that amid a pathetic federal response to the suffering there, it "would send a powerful signal of our level of concern."
Now he realizes that Cheney might have been right to say no. Cheney "doesn't do touchy-feely," Bartlett told Gellman. "Understanding what people's problems are and showing compassion -- that is an important part of the job. ... He was not going to go down there and hug babies."
Two weeks ago, as Hurricane Gustav picked up steam through the Gulf of Mexico and took aim at New Orleans, President Bush canceled his plan to speak in person to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. -- during the one hour of prime-time live network television coverage, no less.
Instead, he flew to Texas to inspect preparations for storm relief, and was briefed on evacuations. He spoke to the Republican delegates that night in a low-key eight-minute live video from the White House, just before the major network coverage began.
But these hurricanes are coming along one after another, and today -- even as the impact of the outer edges of Hurricane Ike were being felt from New Orleans to Galveston and beyond -- the president kept to his original agenda and travel plan: He arrived not far away in Oklahoma on a cloudy morning, spoke to a forum on health savings accounts -- and did $1 million worth of political fundraising.
At the fundraising luncheon in Oklahoma City, Bush spoke behind closed doors to ...
Three years ago, a botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina sent President Bush's popularity on a slide from which it has not yet recovered.
Worse, it cemented his legacy as a hands-off president who had allowed a distracted staff at the Department of Homeland Security to focus so fiercely on post-9/11 foreign terrorism that they forgot to protect the public from good old-fashioned, home-grown floods, hurricanes and earthquakes.
Today George W. Bush sought to rewrite the first draft of history.
He rolled up his sleeves and flew down to an emergency operations center in Austin, where he greeted first responders.
He asked questions about coordination between federal, state and local officials -- one of the key failings of the Katrina response.
And he showed concern for the victims, something seen as missing from his attitude three years ago, when victims clung to their roofs seeking rescue while Bush remained on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
This time White House focus was so intense that press secretary Dana Perino was caught off-guard when asked about the surprise resignation of Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
"If his name isn't Gustav," she said, "I haven't heard about it in the past 24 hours."
-- Johanna Neuman
Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press
Could it be that President Bush's decision not to show up tonight at the Republican National Convention satisfies everyone -- except, perhaps, Democrats?
With his job approval rating hovering around a record low, his presence in St. Paul, Minn., during prime time wasn't exactly what was needed to shine a positive light on the Republican presidential ticket.
Indeed, it would have given commentators one more opportunity to remind Americans that Bush's expression of support for John McCain was not necessarily a good thing -- and, anyway, the two could barely tolerate each other and had not, apparently, spoken to each other since late May.
Along comes Hurricane Gustav, the convention schedule gets torn up, and instead of heading to the upper Midwest, the president dispatches himself this morning to Texas, to comfort evacuees from the approaching storm.
And he gets a chance to step out of a blatantly political role and present himself instead as "on the job as president of the United States," said Kenneth M. Duberstein, Ronald Reagan's final White House chief of staff, in an interview with Countdown to Crawford.
Besides, said Kenneth Khachigian, who wrote the speech Reagan delivered to the Republican National Convention in 1988 as he turned the political reins over to George H.W. Bush, the current President Bush really had no choice.
"The potential for disaster would make the president look thoughtless if he came to the convention and addressed the political gathering, instead of showing his concern" for the people in the storm's path.
Khachigian said:
It was probably a pretty easy call for him to make. Katrina's on everyone's mind. The choice was made for him. I don't think he had to weigh one thing against the other. Once it got to a certain dimension -- with the governors of the gulf states canceling, and [Vice President Dick] Cheney not coming -- that's probably the right thing to do.
"The president has become the comforter in chief," Khachigian said, and it would have looked inappropriate for him to forgo that role to speak in the political setting.
As for getting out of a setting in which the coverage would note Bush's low standing, Khachigian added: "It sort of relieves him of having to deal with one more series of political shots."
As the dust settles, on an oddly busy White House Sunday:
The president went for a morning bike ride, part of his normal Sunday routine when in Washington.
He returned to the White House and spoke by telephone with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to check on preparations there for Hurricane Gustav.
Then--out of bike togs and wearing biz casual French blue shirt and dark slacks--Bush got a weather and preparedness update at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Administration.
Then, back to the White House.
He did not go to church, another of his regular Sunday activities when in Washington.
Along the way, he redrew his travel schedule for Monday, Labor Day:
No trip to St. Paul, Minn., to speak to the Republican National Convention. Nor will Vice President Dick Cheney speak to the delegates in person. Instead, the president will go to Texas to visit with storm evacuees and check on emergency preparation centers placed out of the storm area.
Citing the preparations going on along the Gulf Coast and in Washington, and the potential dangers residents in the storm's path were facing, the president said to reporters (and television cameras) in a corner of the FEMA operations center:
In light of these events, I will not be going to Minnesota for the Republican National Convention. I'm going to travel down to Texas tomorrow to visit with the Emergency Operations Center in Austin, where coordination among federal, state, and local government officials is occurring. I intend to go down to San Antonio where state and local officials are prepositioning relief materials for Texas and Louisiana, and I'll have a chance to visit with residents of both states who have been evacuated.
I will not be traveling to Louisiana tomorrow because I do not want my visit to impede in any way the response of our emergency personnel.
Throughout it all, White House officials kept up a steady flow of reports as the schedule shifted: First, relaying word that the president was unlikely to make the Minnesota trip, and then, after he spoke with Nagin, confirming that he had canceled the political mission.
As our cousins at The Swamp noted, it's all a "starkly different tableaux" than that presented in the wake of Hurricane Katrina three years ago along the Gulf Coast, when the president "made a low flight over New Orleans in Air Force One"--and took a major hit for the inadequacy of the initial federal response.
For the White House transcript of the president's remarks, click on Read Full Story...
If you are waiting for President Bush to deliver a red-meat speech lashing into Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention, keep waiting.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino says he won't do it.
Why not?
"Because he's got class," she said at today's White House news briefing.
To be sure, he could, given the criticism dished out at him for four days by Democrats in Denver.
To that, Perino said:
But this president knows better than almost any politician in America what it's like to face criticism. He watched his dad as vice presidential candidate for two terms go through that, and then when his dad ran for president, he saw it again, and then in his own campaigns, the two national elections. He knows what it's like in high political season, and he's not going to respond to every attack.
That said, she added, referring to the speeches at the Democratic National Convention, "Some of the attacks are just out and out false; for example, suggesting that the Bush administration hasn't invested in alternative or renewable energies."
Nevertheless, she said, "We're in high political season. We're not going to let it get to us."
So, what should we expect in his speech?
A review of the "major issues" facing the nation: terrorism, war, the economy "and the direction of our culture." In other words: He'll play to John McCain's presumed political strength (national security) and play to the tax-cut crowd.
"Direction of our culture?" That's usually code for antiabortion and other "social" issues. Presumably he's not talking about modern art or the coming Broadway season.
"Above all," Perino said, "the speech reflects on the role of the presidency and the qualities that are demanded by the job." And matches McCain with those job requirements.
And then the president will disappear. He's planning to spend the convention week secluded at Camp David, in Maryland's Catoctin mountains.
One possibly wrench in the works: Gustav.
Depending on the strength, path and timing of the storm, Bush could cancel his Monday prime-time speech date; indeed, the Republicans could delay the convention itself.
No need to be seen awash in politics while the Gulf Coast is awash in debris.
It may be hard to believe in Pol-World, what with Barack Obama basking in the Denver glow and heads spinning over John McCain's vice presidential pick (Sarah Palin Who? Governor of Where? Alaska?).
But there remains a White House. The president is there. And as always, trouble is a-brewing.
It's just that few are paying attention.
Never mind. At the White House, there are distractions aplenty from Pol-World.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin (remember him?) saw the hand of President Bush in the conflict in Georgia. He told CNN on Thursday that the White House may have ginned up the Georgian military push into South Ossetia (which brought a Russian response) to benefit McCain's campaign.
If his aides are telling him that, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said of Putin, then he's...
Not only is President Bush keeping atop the reports of Tropical Storm Gustav, but the White House press office is keeping atop efforts to report that he is keeping atop the reports.
In other words, the president's staff wants us to know he's paying attention.
Can you say "Katrina"?
With the new storm following a path much like that of the 2005 hurricane, and forecasters predicting that it could come ashore Tuesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane (with winds in the 113-mph-to-130-mph range), the president has already dispatched top officials to the Gulf Coast to monitor preparations.
She said he was briefed Wednesday afternoon and again this morning by senior staff members.
"He's involved, engaged and getting briefings and working to make sure that the federal assistance is there," the spokeswoman said, adding: "Obviously, state and local authorities have responsibilities."
The efforts to demonstrate Bush's involvement, of course, come against the backdrop of what the president has acknowledged was an insufficient federal response to the devastation that Katrina wrought as it swept across Louisiana and Mississippi.
This afternoon, one of Perino's deputies, Scott Stanzel, dispatched an e-mail update.
He said Bush had spoken with Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security, and David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and "received an update about the ongoing efforts to prepare for the potential landfall of Tropical Storm Gustav."
Stanzel said Bush spoke with them about deploying personnel and prepositioning supplies, and about federal coordination with state and local authorities.
Still up in the air: whether the storm -- or, more specifically, the need to monitor the preparations for the storm and the response to its assault -- will force Bush to alter his plan to address the Republican National Convention on Monday night in St. Paul, Minn.
"Too premature to say," Perino said when asked whether the president's aides were tracking the storm with an eye toward changing his schedule.
Unspoken: the notion that it might be unseemly, let alone politically unwise, for Bush to be rousing the party faithful in St. Paul -- while network cameras were showing Gulf Coast residents again struggling against another horrific storm.
Are the weather gods conspiring to deliver a reminder of one of President Bush's lowest points just as he is about to speak to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.?
A five-day forecast has tropical storm Gustav moving up the Gulf of Mexico this weekend, and striking the same swath of Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Katrina did three years ago some time on Monday.
While President Bush was take a message of optimism to New Orleans as he marked the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, an official traveling with him said that the brighter days that Bush was forecasting would have to be achieved without additional federal money.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Paul Conway, the chief of staff to the administration's Gulf Coast coordinator, said that the federal expenditure -- not counting tax credits -- had reached $126 billion.
That's sufficient, he said.
The president's coordinator for the gulf recovery effort, Gen. Douglas O'Dell, "would tell you that he believes that there are enough resources that are in the pipeline, enough funds in the pipeline, to get the mission done," Conway said.
Just what has been done?
That's more difficult to answer.
Asked what percentage of the Gulf Coast had been rebuilt in the three years since the devastating storm swept ashore, Conway was unable to deliver a specific figure.
He said each sector -- education, or healthcare, for example -- had to be considered individually.
"I would say there are significant portions" that have been repaired, Conway added.
But in the housing area, he said, "there's a lot of work that needs to be done still."
Just not with more Washington dollars.
-- James Gerstenzang
Photo: Mississippi housing display in 2006. Credit: James Edward Bates / Associated Press
James Gerstenzang and Johanna Neuman are reporters in The Times' Washington bureau. Between the two of them, they have covered the White House, diplomacy, military affairs, the environment, international economics, trade and Congress. They have both spent time in Crawford, Texas.
