Of Honor and Dignity (4/10/02)
by Dean Hartwell
Not long ago,
President Bush scolded his press scretary, Ari Fleischer, for blaming former
President Bill Clinton for the violence in the Middle East. I wrote then that
the best way to send a message to the rest of the Bush Administration that
comments like those would not be tolerated would be for Bush to fire Fleischer.
(See Archives, Let This Dog Go, 3/1/02).
Since then, President Bush has told a British television audience that
Clinton's failed Mideast summit in 2000 caused the "intefadeh" going
on between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
That Bush would harbor such thoughts is not surprising: he railed against
Clinton for his lack of "honor and dignity" throughout the campaign
two years ago. As the new president, he probably wants to set himself apart
from the last administration, anyway.
But, his decision to voice these thoughts shows remarkably poor judgment. Bill
Clinton has supported Bush's efforts in the "war on terrorism" and
has otherwise said very little about his successor of a negative nature.
Furthermore, blaming people rather than ideas demonstrates a lack of ideas for
solutions, a point I make in my book, Truth Matters. No matter how
poorly Bush views Clinton's character or personality, he will turn people off
by criticizing him for events that took place some time ago.
Despite Bush's clumsy attempt to apologize for his comments, he still has not
shown much leadership in the Middle East crisis. One way he can start is to
handle differences of opinion or personality with the honor and dignity he
talked about on the campaign trail.