World Tribune.com, the site linked to above, has some very interesting things to say about Bush's overall position. An excerpt:

"In the eyes of the establishment, the Bush tactics, the Bush agenda, and Mr. Bush himself are over the top. The president is girding for battle. He's aiming to consolidate control of his administration, drive out recalcitrant (read: establishment) elements, and make the permanent government heel, especially at the CIA and State Department. He's kept his White House staff intact, from political adviser Karl Rove to speechwriter Mike Gerson to budget chief Josh Bolten, as a kind of headquarters cadre. The White House aides who've departed, such as national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and counsel Alberto Gonzales, were dispatched to take over Cabinet agencies.

Mr. Bush's agenda is post-Reagan in its conservatism, which means it's more far-reaching and thus more threatening to the establishment. Mr. Bush would not only reform Social Security and allow individuals to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in financial markets, he would also revamp the entire federal tax code and fill the Supreme Court with judicial conservatives. And those are only his domestic plans. In foreign affairs, Mr. Bush would make aggressive efforts to spread democracy around the world the centerpiece. The foreign policy élite s aghast."

---

The balance of the article, which is strongly conservative, can be found on this page. It essentially describes Bush as a bold insurgent, an unusual piece of positioning. I do not support the viewpoint of the author, myself, but I think he is intelligent and is doing a good job of saying what he sees. I don't understand, given the departure six cabinet members, how he can say that Bush has kept his cadre intact. But I'll cut him some slack on that issue.



A