A Nervous White House

The Washington Post reports on the tension at the White House, in anticipation of possible indictments coming down against senior advisors. Plotting on how to handle the crisis is well under way:

"Out of the hushed hallway encounters and one-on-one conversations, several scenarios have begun to emerge if Rove or vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis Libby is indicted and forced out. Senior GOP officials are developing a public relations strategy to defend those accused of crimes and, more importantly, shield Bush from further damage, according to Republicans familiar with the plans. And to help steady a shaken White House, they say, the president might bring in trusted advisers such as budget director Joshua B. Bolten, lobbyist Ed Gillespie or party chairman Ken Mehlman."

In other words, they're worried sick about it and trying to figure out what to do in case things go as badly as everyone seem to be anticipating. But it was this passage that caught my attention:

"These tentative discussions come at a time when White House senior officials are exploring staff changes to address broader structural problems that have bedeviled Bush's second term, according to Republicans who said they could speak candidly about internal deliberations only if they are not named. But it remains unclear whether Bush agrees that changes are needed and the uncertainty has unsettled his team."

These "structural problems" have less to do with the structure of the administration then the structure of the mind of the man leading it. If Bush is having problems in his second term, it's only because all of the mistakes of the first are finally beginning to catch up to him. And those mistakes appear to be ones primarily of leadership, in Bush's failure to get a handle on his advisors, his failure to know what they're up to, his failure to require more of them then loyalty and fawning attention, and his failure himself to exercise any flexibility of thought when confronted with intractible issues. I've argued since the beginning of the first term that, whatever you think of Bush's politics, he's certainly lacking in the leadership characteristics that one would hope the President of the United States would possess. His only defining characteristics, his resolve, has quickly come to be viewed as mere stubborness and inflexibility even by some of those who support him.

Fortunately, it would seem, for Republicans, none of these problems became apparent until after Bush won re-election last November. I daresay the scandals which were incipient even then, could not harm him so long as they were put off until November 3rd. But to use a sports analogy, it's increasingly clear that like a poor quality team that makes a last ditch run to get into the playoffs, Bush has succeeded only in getting a second term, and has lost the ability to do almost anything with it. As a liberal I'm glad to see that his administration has nearly crippled itself, and yet I can't help but lament at the lack of leadership we're going to have suffer 3 more years of and wonder what else is bound to happen on Bush's watch.