BUSH'S ANGER GROWS WITH WOES

[Guest guest]

Bush's anger grows with woes

Staffers experience fruit of frustration.

 

 

New York Daily News

Published Wednesday, October 26, 2005

WASHINGTON - Facing the darkest days of his presidency, President

George W. Bush is frustrated, sometimes angry and even bitter, his

associates say.

 

With a seemingly uncontrollable insurgency in Iraq, the White House

is facing the political fallout from a grim milestone that came

yesterday: the combat death of the 2,000th U.S. service member.

 

Last week alone, 23 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, and five were

wounded Sunday in a relentless series of attacks across the country.

 

This week also could bring a special prosecutor's decision that could

shake the foundations of the Bush government.

 

The president's top political guru, Karl Rove, and Vice President

Dick Cheney's right-hand man, Lewis " Scooter " Libby, are at the

center of a two-year criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA

agent's identity. Many Bush staffers believe indictments are likely.

 

" He's like the lion in winter, " a political friend said of

Bush. " He's frustrated. He remains quite confident in the decisions

he has made. But this is a guy who wanted to do big things in a

second term. Given his nature, there's no way he'd be happy about the

way things have gone. "

 

Bush usually reserves his celebrated temper for senior aides because

he knows they can take it. Lately, however, some junior staffers also

have faced the boss's wrath.

 

" This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help, " said a

source with close ties to the White House when told about these

outbursts. " This is the president of the United States, and it's not

a pleasant sight. "

 

The specter of losing Rove, his only truly irreplaceable assistant,

lies at the heart of Bush's distress. But a string of political

reversals, including growing opposition to the Iraq war, Hurricane

Katrina's aftermath and Harriet Miers' bungled U.S. Supreme Court

nomination, also have exacted a personal toll.

 

Presidential advisers and friends say Bush is a mass of

contradictions: cheerful and serene, peevish and melancholy,

occasionally lapsing into what he once derided as the " blame game. "

They describe him as beset but unbowed, convinced that history will

vindicate the major decisions of his presidency even if they damage

him and his party in the 2006 and 2008 elections. At the same time,

these sources say Bush, who has a long history of keeping staffers in

their places, has lashed out at aides as his political woes have

mounted.

 

" The president is just unhappy in general and casting blame all

about, " one Bush insider said. " Andy " Card, the White House chief of

staff, " gets his share. Karl gets his share. Even Cheney gets his

share. And the press gets a big share. "

 

The vice president remains Bush's most trusted political confidant.

Even so, the New York Daily News has learned that Bush has told

associates Cheney was overly involved in intelligence issues in the

run-up to the Iraq war.

 

Bush is so dismayed that " the only person escaping blame is the

president himself, " said a sympathetic official, who delicately

termed such self-exoneration " illogical. "