Daddy's men to the rescue, but same old Junior

Sunday London Times: After his election humiliation George Bush has slunk back to Dad for help.

Last week George W Bush was forced back — once again — to the protective arms of his father. They call the first President Bush “Poppy” in the family, and it captures both the authority and the slight daffiness of the 41st president. His first son always lived in his shadow — both deeply admiring him and deeply resenting him, the way dauphins often do their monarchs.

Last week the dream collapsed in the sands of Anbar and the voting booths of the Midwest. The first son, who always wanted to make a name for himself, to escape the suffocating legacy of a presidential father, was forced by the American people to go back to Poppy.

By nominating Robert Gates to the Pentagon, Bush Jr was reduced to asking one of his father’s closest friends to clean up the mess.

For an arrogant guy who has dismissed, if not ridiculed his fathers approach, this is very interesting. My own initial reaction to this "daddy's men to the rescue" situation was that these must be humbling times for Junior, but looking at his attempt to push Bolton through a lame duck Senate tells me that Bush has learned nothing from the thrashing that he just received. Even in the face of defeat and talk of finding middle ground he is still locked in pre-2006 mode. With Cheney still on board it looks as though it's going to be the same old Bush, daddy's men or not.

One by one, Daddy's wise men are coming back to rescue the struggling son.First was James Baker, Secretary of State under Bush the elder, chosen to chair the bipartisan panel seeking a way out of the Iraq mess. Now it is the turn of Robert Gates, CIA director between 1991 and 1993. To him has fallen the toughest job of all: taking over the government department which actually runs the war.

- Chris in Paris, AmericaBlog

LSB: Bush and Rove know that the Bolton nomination is dead. That isn't even an open question. The Bolton Nomination, Part Deux, does, howver, gives Bush and his brain (Rove)the opportunity to feed red meat to the Far Right, while at the same time appearing to offer a trade-off with the Dems for getting the Gates nomination through the Senate.