Book Tells Of Dissent In Bush's Inner Circle

According to a new book by Robert Draper 'ol Turdblossom didn't have quite the influence over Bush some people thought he had.

In fact, had Bush listened to Rove he could have avoided at least two of his many mistakes.

Rove was saying things Bush didn't want to hear. His counsel was ignored.

This fits with my assessment of Bush as a petulant four year old. He does what he damn well pleases. Unfortunately Bush's political "parents", the Congress critters, let him get away with such behavior.

Karl Rove told George W. Bush before the 2000 election that it was a bad idea to name Richard B. Cheney as his running mate, and Rove later raised objections to the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court, according to a new book on the Bush presidency.

In "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush," journalist Robert Draper writes that Rove told Bush he should not tap Cheney for the Republican ticket: "Selecting Daddy's top foreign-policy guru ran counter to message. It was worse than a safe pick -- it was needy." But Bush did not care -- he was comfortable with Cheney and "saw no harm in giving his VP unprecedented run of the place."

When Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, expressed concerns about the Miers selection, he was "shouted down" and subsequently muted his objections, Draper writes, while other advisers did not realize the outcry the nomination would cause within the president's conservative political base.

Via Washington Post.