Bush was out of White House loop

Bush was out of White House loop
http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-vpcoc133754400apr13,0,6922711.column?coll=ny-news-columnists
Marie Cocco -- April 13, 2004

What did the president do and when did he do it?

We've known the long-standing White House claim that it received "no warnings" about a possible terrorist attack in the United States is false. It is false in its breadth, first articulated aboard Air Force One on Sept. 11, 2001. It is false in its particulars - there was much to indicate that the American homeland was a target; that hijacked airplanes might be used in a plot; that terrorists favored New York and Washington for their campaign of chaos and destruction. The extent of the warnings has been demonstrated amply by the joint congressional inquiry and by the independent commission probing the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

CIA Director George Tenet was said to be walking around in the summer of 2001 "with his hair on fire." There was a White House meeting on July 5, 2001, during which the possibility of an attack in the United States was raised and after which the responsible federal agencies - the FBI, the FAA, to name two - were to be notified. There was the daily brief of Aug. 6, 2001, delivered to a vacationing president at his Texas ranch.

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This president's congenital lack of curiosity is well known. It often is promoted as a political virtue, the mark of an unencumbered mind that is decisive and determined. The short memos Bush prefers and the quick, instinctive decisions he is said to make are precisely what make him a strong and effective leader, the argument goes.

Now it appears Bush is out of his own White House loop. Or at least he was in 2001. There is no meeting, no directive, no debate in which he played a role in developing a policy on terrorism.

Perhaps this has changed since Sept. 11. That's open to question. It is a matter of personal style as well as substance, an ingrained attribute that Bush believes has served him well. Presidential micro- management is one of those traits that historians often pick at without mercy, the case of Lyndon Johnson's choosing of bombing targets in Vietnam a popular example.

Still, no one can accuse Bush of being too enmeshed in detail. The recounting of 2001 shows him to have been so detached from the business of governing that imminent danger was unappreciated or, worse, ignored.

The "Out of the Loop" Presidential Family.

as VP poppy bush* could spin it as being out of the loop on Iran-Contra

however as pResident bush* jr IS THE LOOP

One crazy 'greatest nation on the earth.'