Kos post on Whitman's book...takes on Rove, among other things

[Gloria]

http://dailykos.com/story/2005/1/2/21118/75125


Yet Another Former Bush Cabinet Member Comes Out of the Republican Closet

by Spiral Stairs
Sun Jan 2nd, 2005 at 18:01:18 PST

Christine Todd Whitman's new book is scheduled to hit the shelves near the
inauguration, to maximize coverage of its message: Bush's abandonment of
moderates is ruining the Republican party. The Washington Post reports that
Whitman's book "touts the importance of moderates to the future of the Republican
Party and flays Bush and his team for ignoring the country's middle."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41511-2005Jan1.html

Yet another former Bush cabinet member flailing against him. Good! More
below.

Diaries :: Spiral Stairs's diary ::

Whitman indicts the Rove strategy, even if it did lead to short-term success:

Whitman charges on Page 3 that Bush's three-percentage-point margin in the
popular vote is the lowest of any incumbent president ever to win reelection.

"The numbers show that while the president certainly did energize his
political base, the red state/blue state map changed barely at all -- suggesting that
he had missed an opportunity to significantly broaden his support in the most
populous areas of the country," Whitman writes. "The Karl Rove strategy to
focus so rigorously on the narrow conservative base won the day, but we must ask
at what price to governing and at what risk to the future of the party."


She also, in essence, accuses Rove of -- surprise of surprises! --
dishonesty:

Whitman writes that after meeting with the president-elect at a hotel suite
in Washington, she had no doubt that Bush "wanted a strong environmental record
to be part of both his agenda and his legacy."

"The belief was reinforced when Karl Rove told me after that meeting that I
would be one of just three cabinet officers who would help determine whether
the president would be reelected," she writes. "I took Rove to mean that the
work I would do in building a strong record on the environment would help the
president build on his base by attracting moderate swing voters. As it turned
out, I don't seem to have understood Karl correctly."


Interestingly, her book tour will take her to D.C., New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California -- but no red states.
C'mon Christie -- cross over to this side!

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Bush's margin of "victory" is actually 2.4%.

[ET Awful]

2. So why didn't this yahoo publish his book in say . . . September

instead?

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Uh ... "Christie" is a "she" ... Christine Todd Whitman (n/t)

[ET Awful]

4. Okay, so why didn't this yahooette publish HER book in say . . . September

?????

[Kber]

5. 'Cause she was waiting to see exactly how blue NJ was going to be

My guess is that she's going to try for Corzine's seat when he runs for gov and she is calculating that a repub isn't going to win state wide office in NJ w/out putting some distance between herself and Bush.

I admit that she wasn't a terrible gov - although I didn't vote for her, I was basically OK with it when she won reelection. But her cowerdly performance after 9-11 in shutting down EPA evidence of potentially serious air polution was inexcusable. (My friend's sister worked for the EPA at the time and was absolutely outraged.)

My real concern is what she will do as a US Senator. As a Gov, she could act on her moderate instincts. In the US Senate, she'd have to demonstrate some real courage to stand up to the repub leadership - something she hasn't exactly excelled at in the past.

[DaveinMD]

6. She was a horrible Governor

she left the state in horrible shape because of her idiotic tax cuts. This also resulted in property tax increases in most localities.

[hatrack]

7. 3 months too late, millions & millions of $ short

Yes, Christie, remind all of us how Bush & Rove & Cheney & John Graham & Connaughton just kept pissing in your face again and again, and how you kept crawling back for more.

Remind us of your current height of 3'5" after being sawed off at the knees so many times.

Remind us of how you courageously broke this story in your new book, which came out right before the election and . . . gosh, guess that last bit wouldn't work, now would it?

:mad: