SCUM AT THE TOP

The Bush Dyslexicon
by Mark Crispin Miller
(W. Norton, 2001)

Freedom of Expression

Bush's position on free speech is flexible. On the one hand, he supports free speech for media corporations and well-fixed political campaigns (i.e., his own). He is therefore opposed to campaign finance reform (see below). Likewise -- despite his sermonettes against the "dark" stuff on the Internet, and peddled by "big Hollywood" -- Bush is utterly opposed to any regulation of the media for public interest purposes. This puts him squarely in the laissez-faire tradition of Ronald Reagan, whose FCC chairman, Mark Fowler, once notoriously claimed that TV is just an appliance, "like a toaster." (On such issues Bush is also not that far from Clinton/Gore, whose record is an awful lot like that of Reagan/Bush. See below, p. xxx, n. xxx.) Colin Powell's son Michael, Bush's choice to chair the FCC, is an unabashed free-marketeer convinced that Clinton/Gore's pro-corporate policies on media were somehow bad for business.

While adamant in his support of "free speech" for himself and friends, Bush has no qualms about silencing the opposition, or anyone who might mess with his "message." Like Nixon, he is quick to deny access to any publication that might dare to scrutinize his record or his policies. One reporter, who had tried to cover Bush in depth, told me that the campaign's iron curtain was unprecedented in his own professional experience: "I can honestly say that I never encountered so much resistance in so many arenas in my 23 years of being a working journalist."

As the Hatfield episode demonstrates, moreover, Bush will use whatever spooky strategems it takes to "neutralize" an inconvenient voice. In general, Bush favors the prerogative of management over the free speech rights of individuals who work for them, as his take on the John Rocker episode made clear (see below, p. xxx).

"When it comes to the overall story, the long-term view of the campaign, it's so important for the campaign to set the long-term view."
-- Brill's Content Online, 9/00

"Obviously, the less publicity I'm able to achieve in California...the more I'm able to continue to send the message that my head and heart's right here in Texas."
-- CNN, 5/12/98

This was Bush's explanation of his decision to bar coverage of a recent speech of his in Hollywood.

In the course of researching her Vanity Fair profile of Gov. Bush, Gail Sheehy found herself abruptly frozen out by his campaign -- and long before she "knew" he had dyslexia. Her crime was to have discovered the horrific consequences of the Governor's polluter-friendly rule. In Odessa, she saw the residents of that blue-collar city suffering the tortures of the damned -- darkness at noon, soaring rates of respiratory illness, windows taped shut in the thick of summer -- because of copious emissions by the Huntsman plastics factory right in the heart of town. "The Huntsman operation in Odessa is not the worst case of alleged environmental recklessness in Texas, but it is a classic example of how the interests of the oil and power and petrochemical industries are protected by the Bush administration, while the population is virtually helpless against the dangerously mounting pollution levels."

As the conclusion of her article reports, her effort to get some germane response from Bush led to her immediate alienation from his Presence.

"I hoped to have an opportunity to ask Governor Bush about his learning difficulties, his religious awakening, and his environmental policies. Coming out of the celebratory Republican convention, I joined Bush's whistle-stop train tour through the Midwest, expecting a real grassroots trip. Instead, it was a long string of privately owned railroad cars. The campaign had hired a top Philadelphia caterer, who was told to 'take care of the press, first class,' which meant laying on heavy hors d'oeuvres -- smoked-salmon napoleons and caviar on crème fraiche -- while the train purred through traditionally Democratic states. Crowds were huge and highly charged, but the faces were almost exclusively white.

" Running down the roadbed at one stop, I collared Don Evans. I asked him how Bush, as president, would balance his loyalty to the oil, gas and petrochemical industries with the nation's growing concerns about environmental policy. The pause was long. 'We'll have a policy position on the environment and energy -- it's being worked on.' Evans emphasized that the governor has taken 'enormous constructive steps to reduce pollution.'

"The next morning I was told by Karen Hughes, 'The governor will not be able to participate in your profile.'"
-- Gail Sheehy, "The Accidental Candidate," Vanity Fair, 8/00.

As he explained throughout the GOP debates, Bush has no qualms about trade with China, whose repression of free speech (and other) rights doesn't seem to faze him.

"Imagine if the Internet took hold in China. Imagine how freedom would spread. I told -- in my earlier answer, I said our greatest export to the world has been, is, and always will be the incredible freedom we understand in America"
-- GOP debate, Phoenix, 12/6/99

Such tolerance of the Chinese way is not surprising, since Bush himself is no more tolerant of heresy than are the rulers in Beijing.

"There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of this [web] site, and this guy is just a garbage man, that's all he is."
-- AP, 5/21/99

Thus the Governor explained his complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission, to shut down a parody site, gwbush.com

Perfectly at ease with media concentration, and therefore quiteuntroubled by the prospect of a few huge corporations ruling allthe culture industries, on-line and off-, Bush was typically unableto use simple English in attempting to feign deep concern at such a threat to free expression:

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?"
-- Concord, N.H., 1/29/00; Slate

Bush often would lament the gross and exploitative product of the media, especially when it was aimed at children:

"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."
-- Arlington Heights, Ill., 10/24/00; Slate

However, such product doesn't bother him enough to take the side of parents who like to see some programming not dictated purely by commercial logic:

"Put the 'off' button on."
-- AP, 2/14/00)

Such was the Governor's advice to parents troubled by the graphic fare on television.

In October, 1999, John Rocker, a gifted pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, created a considerable ruckus when he gave Sports Illustrated a rich sample of the contents of his mind. He was especially vivid on the subject of New York, "the most hectic, nerve-racking city," where he had found the Mets fans especially unlikeable -- although the catcalls in Shea Stadium were not the only local color that offended him. "Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing." "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners," the ebullient Georgian also noted. "I'm not a very big fan of foreigners." Although universally condemned for such remarks, Rocker later heatedly denied any kinship with the controversial Latrell Sprewell (now with the New York Knicks), who had taken similar heat for choking P. J. Carlesimo, his then-coach, two years before. "That guy should've been arrested, and instead he's playing basketball," exploded Rocker. "Why do you think that is? Do you think if he was Keith Van Horn -- if he was white -- they'd let him back? No way." It was not just New Yorkers who got Rocker's goat, however. He casually referred to one black teammate as "a fat monkey."

Rocker's free-associations prompted many calls that he be sensitized ASAP. "Something should be done about this, so that Mr. Rocker is held accountable for his vicious and bigoted remarks," said Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose delicate regard for others' feelings is well-known. The Mayor advised "some kind of training, where he becomes more educated." Such calls had their effect. Soon the management of the Atlanta Braves decided to have Rocker "counselled," so that he might go and sin no more.

At the GOP debate in Michigan, journalist Suzanne Geha asked Gov. Bush for his opinion on the Braves' decision. His approval of the company's position was remarkable. First of all, it indicated a departure from the libertarian ideals of most American conservatives, who generally deplore the tendency to treat hate speech as a crime or illness. Bush's take on the outspoken Georgian was a little disingenuous, moreover, inasmuch as Rocker's diatribe was not the sort of thing that a Republican would mind. (See "The Color Line," p. xxx below.)

SUZANNE GEHA: As a former owner of a baseball team, the Texas Rangers, and as a candidate for president, would you defend Rocker's right to say whatever he wanted short of making a threat, or would you support and require him to undergo psychological testing? Would you call for his firing or demotion?

BUSH: Listen, I think it's a free -- this is a case of a player needs help [sic].And I appreciate the fact that the Atlanta Braves are getting himcounseling. But this is a world of -- in athletics, this is a world of someyoung men who make a lot of money who don't -- who aren't responsible for their behavior.

What I'd like to do, as the president of the United States, is usher in the responsibility era, so that each American, whether you be a baseball player or a -- anything, wear the uniform of the United States, are responsible for the actions you take in life; that each of us must understand with certainty that we are responsible for the decisions we make.

And it starts, by the way, with having a president who behaves responsibly in the Oval Office.

GEHA: Governor Bush?

BUSH: Yes.

GEHA: Do you think that it is fair to order someone to undergopsychological testing if that individual says something that is sooffensive?

BUSH: I think in this case it made sense to do so, and I appreciate whatthe Atlanta Braves have decided to do. I appreciate that.

Geha asked the Governor if Rocker might have been immune tosuch forced "testing" if he played for a publicly supported institution rather than a private corporation.

BUSH: Look, I think -- I think that -- I don't know the particulars aboutthis particular person. I think the Braves made the right decision, though. I mean, they know the man better than you and I do. The fellow said some incredibly offensive things. He is a public person. And I appreciate them trying to get the man help.

I understand in America we can say what we want to say, but that doesn't mean that if the man needs help, he shouldn't get it. And I appreciate their efforts to provide psychological counseling for him.
-- GOP debate, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1/10/00

Campaign Finance Reform

"I'm trying to protect my invest -- my contributors from unscrupulous practices."
-- Houston Chronicle, 7/18/98

The Governor was explaining why he had resisted having the names of his campaign donors posted on-line.

Although he'd vigorously resisted publicizing his donors' names, the Governor was all for public information of some kind -- the vaguer and more limited, the better. Indeed, such unenlightening revelation was the one "reform" that Bush would ever recommend.

"I think a good reform would be for any group that decides to put money up on TV, they need to let us know something about their group and who their treasurer is, for example."
-- "This Week," ABC, 3/5/00

"On the one hand he preaches campaign finance reform. On the other hand he passes the plate."
-- New York Times, 2/8/00

Bush was here referring to Sen. John McCain -- who had received "more money than anybody" from DC lobbyists, the Governor charged. In fact, the Governor, in working lobbyists and their immediate families, had raised almost five times as much as Sen McCain in the first three quarters of 1999, according to the Center for Resonsive Politics.

When Al Gore endorsed McCain's crusade, the Governor again responded with ad hominem derision -- and an outright lie about his own unprecedented campaign war-chest.

GORE: This current campaign financing system has not reflected credit on anybody in either party. And that's one of the reasons I've said before, and I'll pledge here tonight, if I'm President, the very first bill that Joe Lieberman and I will send to the United States Congress is the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. And the reason it's that important is that all of the other issues -- whether prescription drugs for all seniors that are opposed by the drug companies, or the Patients Bill of Rights to take the decisions away from the H.M.O.s and give them to the doctors and nurses, opposed by the H.M.O.'s and insurance companies -- all of these other proposals are going to be a lot easier to get passed for the American people if we limit the influence of special interest money, and give democracy back to the American people. And I wish Gov. Bush would join me this evening in -- in endorsing theMcCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.

LEHRER: Gov. Bush.

BUSH: You know, this man has no credibility on the issue. As a matter offact, I read in The New York Times where he said he co-sponsored theMcCain-Feingold campaign fund-raising bill. But he wasn't in the Senatewith Sen. Feingold.

And so I -- Look, I'm going to -- What you need to know about me is, I'm going to uphold the law. I'm going to have an Attorney General that enforces the law, that if the time for -- the time for campaign funding reform is after the election.

This man has outspent me. The special interests are outspending me. And I am not going to lay down my arms in the middle of the campaign for somebody who has got no credibility on the issue.
-- Presidential debate, 10/3/00

Although beside the point (and false to boot), the crack about Gore's claim to have co-sponsored the McCain-Feingold functioned to distract us from the issue, by invoking the effective propaganda legend of Al Gore as a "serial exaggerator." Having thus used up his only ammunition on the campaign finance front, Bush flailed around, resolving vaguely "to uphold the law," and urging the postponement of the whole discussion until "after the election."

The Governor then made a desperate lunge for the high ground with his preposterous claim that his opponent, and "the special interests," had "outspent" him. In fact, Bush raised, and spent, more money than any presidential candidate in US history (just as he had done both times he ran for Governor of Texas). In the last election season, Bush/Cheney raised $193,088,650, and spent a total of $132,900,252. For their part, Gore/Lieberman had raised $185,860,812, and spent $120,369,160. Although the Governor's almighty fund-raising apparatus was well-known to the telejournalists, his claim to have been "outspent" by Gore inspired no snide remarks from them about his tendency to gild the truth.*

"Bush partisans would have you believe that his $ 63 million (as of December 20 [1999]) represents nothing so much as a vast out-pouring of public support. 'The media's monomania about Bush's fund raising,' wrote George Will in a recent column, 'reflects an obdurate refusal to recognize that Bush has lots of money because he has lots of supporters, not vice versa.' Will, whose penchant for Republican front-runners is legendary, may want to fire his research assistant: According to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, Bush has managed to raise more than twice as much as AI Gore with about 20,000 fewer donors. And it's no surprise that of Bush's top-10 fundraising zip codes, two are in Greenwich (his pere's home turf), one is on New York's Upper East Side, and eight are in Texas. Like any mainstream Republican, Bush gets most of his money from the usual collection of establishment and business types, with added boosts from Texas oil and gas interests and from his father's old fundraising network."
-- The American Prospect, 1/31/00

The exchange on campaign finance at the first debate continued, with Al Gore suddenly reverting to a notion of reform far more effective than the weak provisions of McCain-Feingold (which actually would raise the limits on individual donations). The Governor's hysterical response to his opponent's sally is worth noting.

LEHRER: Sen. McCain said in August that it didn't matter which one ofyou is President of the United States in January. There's going to be bloodon the floor of the United States Senate, and he's going to tie up theUnited States Senate until campaign finance reform is passed that includesa ban on soft money. First of all, would you support that effort by him, orwould you sign a bill that is finally passed that included soft --

BUSH: Well, I would support an effort to ban corporate soft money andlabor union soft money, so long as there was dues checkoff. I've campaignedon this ever since the primaries. I believe there needs to be instantdisclosure on the Internet as to who's giving to whom. I think we need tofully enforce the law. I mean, I think we need to have an Attorney Generalthat says if laws are broken we'll enforce the law, be strict about -- befirm about it.

GORE: Look, Gov. Bush, you have attacked my character and credibility. And I am not going to respond in kind. I think we ought to focus on the problems, and not attack each other. And one of the serious problems -- hear me well -- is that our system of government is being undermined by too much influence coming from special- interest money. We have to get a handle on it. And, like John McCain, I have learned from experience. And it's not a new position for me. Twenty-four years ago, I supported full public financing of all federal elections. And anybody who thinks I'm just saying it'll be the first bill I send to the Congress, I want you to know --

BUSH: All right, let me just say one thing -- !

GORE: -- I care passionately about this, and I will fight until it becomeslaw.

BUSH: I want people to hear what he just said! He is for full public financing of Congressional elections! I'm absolutely, adamantly opposed to that! I don't want the government financing Congressional elections -- !
-- Presidential debate, 10/3/00

The Governor's outrage was understandable, since full public financing of federal elections would eliminate the vast electoral advantage of the rich, and finally cleanse our airways of the heavy fog of propaganda that benights our politics throughout every campaign season. (Such radical reform would irk the broadcasters no less than it would hobble certain politicians, since it's the media machine itself that takes in all that money -- a pay-off that explains why the National Association of Broadcasters is the top lobbyist against campaign finance reform.)

Faced with that surprising challenge by Al Gore, Bush resorted to a bit of tacit Red-baiting, by equating actual reform with Big Brother-type control of federal elections. (Of course, as things turned out, our electoral system was subverted by the Governor himself.)

"Show me the money!"
-- Texas Monthly, 6/99

The Governor shouted out that cinematic jest on seeing two lobbyists on the steps of the Capitol in Austin, Texas.

"This is an impressive crowd, the haves, and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

-- Al Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, 10/19/00)

* The data are available on the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, at www.opensecrets.org.

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