Washington Whispers
Historians Ask: Is 43 or 41 the Worst?
Maybe former President Jimmy Carter wasn't thinking broadly enough when he called President Bush the worst ever. Historians are starting to lump the 43rd president's record in with his dad's, the 41st president, as they begin sizing up just what went wrong with W's administration and his place in history. "His historical legacy," says James Madison University's Glenn Hastedt, "is right at the tipping point." He should know. Hastedt coedits the weighty White House Studies, which is devoting two upcoming issues to comparing father and son.
One scholarly paper provided to Whispers offers an interesting theory. Gary Wekkin of the University of Central Arkansas says the two would have succeeded if they had switched places: 43 to fight the first Iraq war and domestic issues his dad failed at and 41 to handle the current war and international crises that followed. "Strictly speaking, neither Bush 41 nor Bush 43 has been a poor president," says Wekkin. "Rather, each seems to have been the right person for the presidency at the wrong time."
It's not curtains for 43, though. Wekkin says Bush may yet see his hope of having historians 50 years off judge him better. "It worked for Harry Truman," says Wekkin. Hastedt, meanwhile, says it all hinges on the war. "If Iraq fails," he says, "it will be very difficult to call it a success."
MySpace Is Not Your Space at Work
It's been over three years since a House staffer scandalized Capitol Hill by blogging about her sexual exploits with staffers, but there are still no universal rules barring aides from blogging about their jobs on their work or home computers. "It's crazy, and we have to do something about it," says a top GOP aide who is privately quizzing others on their office policies in a bid to come up with one rule.
The aide and others say that several Hill offices have staffers who blab about their work on sites like MySpace and Facebook. "These kids have no sense of privacy," says the top aide to a Senate Democrat. Among the rules being considered are blocking those sites on office computers. Another: Have aides sign a confidentiality agreement barring them from blogging about work even on home computers.
A Green Light for Late Entries
Pollster John Zogby is helping us again, this time on determining if possible late entrants into the presidential race like Republican Newt Gingrich or Democrat Al Gore can really wait until September or later to jump in. His view: You betcha. "Gingrich can wait until the fall," Zogby says, "particularly if the major candidates prove tiresome or flag in some way."
Or, he adds, if "Republicans decide the election is hopeless and they might as well go down in a blaze of glory." Gore "can and must wait because right now 75 percent to 80 percent of the Democratic early primary and caucus voters are satisfied with the field," he says. Gore's signal: when the front-runners slump "or screw up."
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