AND A STEADY HAND TO PULL THAT LOAD BEHIND:

The Bushies' New Groove (DAVID BROOKS, 1/29/05, NY Times)

F. Scott Fitzgerald said there are no second acts in American life. That's got to be one of the most untrue truisms ever uttered. As everybody from Donald Trump to Ozzy Osborne can tell you, there are nothing but second acts in American life.

The Bush administration has started its second act, and it is striking how different this one feels. When you ask senior officials to remember the first term, they remember it as a time of war. There was the attack of Sept. 11. There were invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. There was the political war of the 2004 campaign.

That was a time when pieces of things were cast asunder. Senior Bush officials talk about this term as a time when pieces of things will be put back together. There's almost a springlike, postwar mood.

In the ultimate blow to his opponents, the President has moved on from 9-11 before they've moved on from 12/12/00.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2005 10:25 AM