WASHINGTON — George W. Bush came to town promising CEO-like efficiency and crisp management of, by and for his administration. For months this MBA president delivered. But now on problems ranging from presidential jet lag to terrorism and the threat of nuclear war in Asia, the upper echelons of the Bush team run a ragged, misfiring show.
Put away any partisan gloating or defensiveness you might bring to the subject of Bush &Company’s management of its policies. The Bush team has been praised often enough on this score in this corner for partisanship not to be an issue. (See ABM, Russia, Afghanistan, China, Western Hemisphere, nuclear weapons, etc.)
The issue is how well the president and senior aides will recover from a period in which they have been overwhelmed by the pace of events and crises beyond the immediate control even of the mightiest nation on earth. Part of the answer will come in how honestly the Bush team faces up to and addresses its recent stumbles.
The fatigue etched on Bush’s features and his avowal in Paris of a bad case of jet lag can only prompt compassion: When he is at home, this president insists on finishing working dinners with foreign dignitaries or his own military chiefs no later than 7:30 p.m. He was dragged across Europe and into dinners ending at midnight by schedulers who should have known his limitations better. They will need compassion as well when Bush gets finished with them.
Jet lag is not a minor issue in international politics. Some senior officials who helped Lyndon Johnson prosecute the American war in Vietnam wondered later if they would have made the same decisions absent a furious pace of round-trip journeys half a world away. Judgment is too valuable to be tampered with lightly.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card’s management style is politely described by some Cabinet members as opaque and by some senior Republican legislators as nonexistent on follow-up actions. How closely Card reviewed the trip to jet-lag hell is one question such insiders will savor asking.
More serious management issues are raised by the failure of the leadership of the FBI and Justice Department to know what its agents knew and when they knew it, and to get information on the potential for terrorism to the White House, the CIA and U.S. airlines both before and after Sept. 11.
The public is likely to give Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General John Ashcroft the benefit of the doubt in the "what if?" guessing game sparked by pre-Sept. 11 memos. But they clumsily give an impression of trying to suppress information after the fact and of refusing to examine honestly their own shortcomings. Cover-up is often more fatal than deed in this town. A White House that truly demands efficiency and clarity will be hard put to defend the present bumbling of this pair.
Bush also deserves sympathy for having to deal with a South Asia crisis that now overshadows his continuing Middle East crisis, while he was in Europe ending the Cold War crisis once again. There Bush was in Moscow and Paris telling Pakistani President Yasser … I’m sorry, that’s Pervez Musharraf … that he had to do more to stop terrorism.
"He must perform," Bush said, while Secretary of State Colin Powell was expressing "disappointment" with … let me check to make sure … yes, with Musharraf this time. Recycling quotes directed at Yasser Arafat only days ago is one contribution Bush and Powell make to the rhetoric conservation movement.
Musharraf’s response on Monday does not enhance the White House reputation for crisis management. He delivered a bellicose, insulting tirade against India and moved the region a step closer to war. He issued a denial of cross-border terror operations in Kashmir that Bush and Powell know is untrue. Musharraf responded to U.S. trust and appeals with disdain worthy of the Palestinian president.
Multiple crises and recalcitrant "allies" are nothing new in statecraft. But these very difficult, converging problems seem to push Bush officials off balance. They perhaps are awakening from the myth of U.S. unipolarity in world affairs to discover how many moving parts there are in geopolitics beyond their direct control.
No White House, including this one, can manage the world or even its own nation like a giant corporation. Leadership is different than management. Bush showed an impressive awareness of that principle in the wake of Sept. 11. He needs to do so again just as soon as he catches up on his sleep.
Jim Hoagland can be reached at The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200 or hoaglandj@washpost.com.
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