Guest Commentary: A Change is Gonna Come

After January 2007, George W. Bush will have to deal with Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. He has already met with the new leadership, including Pelosi and Reid. To both he promised cooperation; he even told Pelosi he’d give her the name of a decorator for her new office. He also said that this was not a new situation for him, wrily noting that this was not his “first rodeo.” He joked with senators Durbin and Reid that his blue tie was further evidence of post-“thumping” good will.

All of this came on the heels of his abrupt dismissal of Don Rumsfeld. And when W replaced him with Robert Gates, he led many old Washington hands to think that “Poppy” and his gang would be back influencing things. Misguided pundits wrote that daddy was going to bail out his boy once again. One noted that Oedipus had entered the political realm; as op-eds called Bush pathetic and in need of having his presidency saved. Newsweek’s cover screamed “Father Knows Best: With Congress lost and Iraq in chaos, Bush calls in his dad’s team.”

Well, I’m not so sure that George W. Bush is really singing a different tune - he doesn’t want to, and even if he did, I don’t think he could without extensive psychotherapy. The Gates nomination is not a sign that W will soon be surrounded by his father’s team, though this has been a life-long pattern. Rather, I see the Gates appointment as an in-your-face move, imposing yet another known manipulator of news and a former Iran-Contra operative on the ever-gullible media. To me, Bush is saying, “You don’t like Rummy? Now look what I’m dishing up.”

And it’s not only Gates. Bush is appointing the same old right wing judges he always has, as reported in the Wall Street Journal. He is re-appointing UN Ambassador Bolton. His newly appointed head of family planning was described in the Washington Post as “striking proof that the Bush administration remains dramatically out of step with the nation’s priorities.” And to top it off, he wants 20,000 more troops for another push – one more deadly push – so he can stay the course in Iraq.

In other words, Bush remains defiant, still out of touch with what is happening both in the world around him and in his own inner world. Wearing a blue tie and recommending an interior decorator is not Bush offering olive branches to the Democratic victors – rather it is his way of mocking them. Bush remains the consummate con artist, joking and smiling while continuing to stick the knife in. Because of all this, January will be a time for action, not reaction – a time for careful and thorough investigation with all blinders off.

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Dr. Justin A. Frank, M.D., is a highly-regarded Washington-based psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School. He authored "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President."