Times Watch for October 15, 2003
Incurious
George
There's just no pleasing some people. Bush's leisurely,
month-long vacations in arid Crawford, TX have long been a subject of media
criticism. Now Times reporter David Sanger seems to think Bush isn't taking
enough time to see the world.
In a Wednesday report on
Bush's upcoming whirlwind Asia tour, "Fast Lane for President: 6 Nations, 6
Days, Safely," Sanger discusses terrorist threats in the countries Bush will
visit and proceeds to link that to the idea of Bush as an "incurious tourist."
As if terror threats aren't a valid excuse.
Sanger writes: "One senior
official said the dispute with the Secret Service over going to Indonesia at all
got so heated 'that the whole thing had to end up in the Oval Office, with the
president declaring that we are going.' All this has put Indonesia and the
Philippines in the same heightened security category as Colombia, where the
threat of attack by the drug lords forced the first President Bush to visit for
only a day in 1990. Thus Mr. Bush, not an ever-curious tourist, will see less
than usual."
More of incurious George:
"Past presidents have taken in the restaurants of Sydney or the wonders of the
country. Not Mr. Bush: He cut the trip down to a visit to Canberra, a capital
that is a bit like Ottawa but not quite as vibrant. He will be there for just 21
hours, on his way to a day of fundraising in Honolulu, perhaps the only time he
will make it to Hawaii between now and the election." Is the Times actually
accusing a president of not taking a Hawaiian vacation?
For the rest of David Sanger on Bush's Asia trip,
click here.
Asia
|
George Bush |
David Sanger |
Terrorism |
Vacation
Repositioning
a Left-Wing Peace Plan
Greg Myre tries to situate a left-wing Middle East
peace plan more toward the mainstream of Israeli politics. His Tuesday story,
"Israelis and Palestinians Join in Peace Draft," opens: "A group of prominent
Israeli and Palestinian politicians, working outside official channels, have
written a symbolic peace agreement that they hope could be a foundation for
future negotiations."
Yet the so-called Geneva
Initiative, which Myre claims "offers highly specific solutions and calls for
major compromises on the most sensitive issues that have torpedoed previous
peace efforts, ranging from the status of Palestinian refugees to Israeli
settlements," is so pro-Palestinian that even the liberal Ehud Barak (the former
Labor Israeli prime minister who participated in Bill Clinton's Camp David
"peace" deal)
criticizes it as "irresponsible and damaging to the State of Israel."
However, Myre doesn't
relay such liberal Israeli complaints about the initiative; instead he portrays
only the "right-wing Israeli government" as a blockade: "The right-wing Israeli
government immediately denounced the proposal, calling it irresponsible,
freelance diplomacy."
For the rest of Greg Myre's piece on the
Israel-Palestinian freelance peace plan,
click here.
Israel
|
Middle East
|
Greg Myre
|
Palestinians
No
Liberal Democrats?
David Firestone files another story Wednesday
highlighting Democratic Congressional opposition to Bush's $87 billion aid
request for Iraq. Firestone notes: "The spending bill will almost certainly pass
both houses with virtually unanimous Republican support, but since President
Bush announced the size of the spending request on Sept. 7, enthusiasm has
diminished considerably across the political spectrum, reflecting its
unpopularity around the country."
Firestone finds both
conservative Democrats and Republicans speaking out against "rebuilding Iraq at
a time of record-high deficits:" He notes: "Many conservative Democrats say they
would readily vote against the reconstruction aid if it were a separate bill,
but feel obliged to vote for the entire package in order to avoid being charged
by Republicans with abandoning the troops.[Rep. John] Tanner was one of 31
members of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative and moderate House
Democrats, who wrote to President Bush on Tuesday demanding that he find a way
to keep the Iraq bill from increasing the deficit." At the end Firestone notes:
"Many conservative Republicans have also expressed strong misgivings about the
reconstruction aid and its effect on the deficit, but have been pressured by the
White House into dropping amendments requiring Iraqi repayment."
Firestone points out
Congressional "conservatives" three times, but describes other Democratic
opposition this way: "The 39 members of the Congressional Black Caucus are
considered likely to vote unanimously against the bill no matter what amendments
are added, as will scores of other Democratic members." Note how Firestone
employs ideological terms to describe the "conservative" Blue Dogs, but not the
avowedly liberal Black Caucus.
For more of Firestone on Iraq spending,
click here.
Congress |
David Firestone
|
Iraq War |
Labeling Bias