The Beltway news media is all abuzz over NEWSWEEK's bombshell cover story -- a devastating account of a mushrooming White House scandal which, till now, only lurked below the surface.
Face it: Every White House, sooner or later, gets hit with 'The Big One' -- a major scandal -- and I'm afraid, for Bush, this may be it.
As far as White House scandals, you probably think you've heard and seen 'em all, I bet. Presidential perjury, obstruction of justice, selling the White House, stealing the White House, trashing the White House, pardons-for-sale, vandalism, larceny, embezzlement, seduction of interns -- we got all these and more under the most ethical administration in history alone.
Well, ya ain't heard nothing yet, folks.
Get a load of this: "George W. Bush rises ahead of the dawn most days," writes NEWSWEEK reporter Howard Fineman, and "he goes off to a quiet place to read alone."
Reading alone -- that's the Big Scandal?
Wrong. What's he reading, ummmm?
Detective Fineman lays out the damaging details rocking the White House tonight: "His text isn't news summaries or the overnight intelligence dispatches...It's not recreational reading...IT'S A BOOK OF EVANGELICAL MINI-SERMONS," Oswald Chambers', '"My Utmost for His Highest"!
Scary stuff, yes, but that's not all.
"This presidency" Fineman continues in his tale of White House horrors, "is the most resolutely 'faith-based' in modern times, an enterprise founded, supported and guided by trust in the temporal and spiritual power of God."
Brace yourself, here's the bombshell revelation: "The Bush administration is dedicated to the idea that there is an answer to societal problems here and to terrorism abroad: give everyone, everywhere, the freedom to find God, too."
Bush is a born-again Christian! And he prays, too! And he reads the Bible!
While the White House may have weathered initial blows from these startling revelations, the bottom line is the bottom line: Bush is way, way TOO CHRISTIAN, say the newsies!
But wait: "An envoy sent by Pope John Paul on Wednesday," Reuters reports, "urged President George W. Bush to avoid war and work with the United Nations to seek a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi crisis."
Cardinal Pio Laghi, during his private meeting with the President, conveyed a letter from the Pope which read in part, "I ask the Lord to inspire you to search for a way to a stable peace, the noblest of human endeavors."
Reuters: "Asked whether he had persuaded Bush to rule out war as an outcome to the Iraqi situation, Laghi said: 'You have to ask him.'"
The answer, in other words, was NO! Bush told the Pope no!
So now the media says BUSH ISN'T CHRISTIAN ENOUGH!
So the week began with the media griping and fussing and carping that Bush was too Christian for the job, that his fervent faith only alienates Muslims and the Arab world.
But here we are, barely four days later, and Bush gets slammed for not being fervent enough in keeping with Christian principles and faith.
Don't ya love such displays of unflinching consistency from our rabidly fair-minded, detached and objective news media?
But mull this one over: With the very public Bush-Pope split on Iraq, claims in the Arab world that Bush is a crusader -- a notion NEWSWEEK sought to stoke with it's Bush and God cover story -- will ring more hollow than ever.
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"