The President, Off-Camera

Consider this characterization from the NYT of our President's announcement of George Tenet's resignation (thanks to Josh Marshall for calling my attention to it):

Mr. Bush announced the resignation in a way that was almost bizarre. He had just addressed reporters and photographers in a fairly innocuous Rose Garden session with Australia's prime minister, John Howard. Then the session was adjourned, as Mr. Bush apparently prepared to depart for nearby Andrews Air Force Base and his flight to Europe, where he is to take part in ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the Normady invasion and meet European leaders — some of whom have been sharply critical of the campaign in Iraq.

But minutes later, Mr. Bush reappeared on the sun-drenched White House lawn, stunning listeners with the news of Mr. Tenet's resignation, which the president said would be effective in mid-July. Until then, Mr. Bush said, the C.I.A.'s deputy director, John McLaughlin, will be acting director.

How does this sort of thing happen? I have one guess: Bush forgot that he was supposed to announce Tenet's resignation. Once he got off-camera, a member of his staff reminded him, patted him on the shoulder, and sent him back out into the lights. You cannot say that Bush was told about Tenet (for the first time) during this intermission, because he says he spoke to Tenet at length last night.

Note that this morning was really the President's last chance to get the announcement off before his trip to Europe for the upcoming D-Day commemorations: as the NYT excerpt points out, his next stop was Andrews AFB, and from there, France. Thus it represents as well the Administration's last chance to control (to any degree) the breaking of this - rather large - story. At that moment, Tenet was probably already orating in front of his audience at CIA HQ. There was no time to lose. Thus, some conclusions:

1. Tenet was not fired. I realize this may be hard to believe, but consider the facts: the timing could not be worse for the Administration - GT was supposed to stick around and continue stopping bullets (Iraq and 9-11 intelligence failures) until the election. Even the NYT thinks it stinks. And the proof in the pudding is this: they had about 10 minutes free in the President's schedule to make the announcement, and no time for him (or the Press Sec'y) to take any questions. Poor, poor, poor show indeed for this crowd (Rove!), if they were running the show. And I don't care what Rummy says - he's lucky to still have a job, much less be calling hits in on fellow Cabineteers.

2. Our President is an idiot. I don't want to go overboard on this, but - come on! What did you think Tenet was telling you last night, Mr. President? It's not like GT was going to give his swan-song to the assembled corps without allowing the President to break the news to the public ahead of any leaks from Langley. Obviously the timing was worked out in full the night before, in a frantic burst of activity that included a rejiggering of morning plans, preparation of the President's statement, review of Tenet's resignation speech, and discussion of Administration talking points (personal reasons!). Given all that activity, how could the President fail to realize he would have to read his statement after the meeting with Howard?

It's a doozy of a "To-Do" to forget, on a bright sunny Rose Garden morning. But I have a theory for this one, too. You see, it was decided (not by W) that he would be the one to deliver the news to the assembled press corps. This is an unpleasant task. Moreover, the whole situation is darned unpleasant, when you get right down to it - Chalabi and Plame investigations ongoing, the CIA in a high dudgeon and the polygraphs loosed - the sort of situation you'd rather have take care of itself, if it could. Of course, like many a nasty situation, it can't, or won't, and that's what gets most of us out of bed to work on them, eventually. So:

3. Our President seeks to avoid unpleasant tasks. Whether he deliberately tried to "skip out" on the Tenet statement, like some frat boy baseball jock skipping Calculus lecture, or not is irrelevant here - even if it slipped his conscious mind, that could only happen if he allowed himself to think of the statement as an unpleasant chore that he would really rather not do - And by the way, isn't there anyone else who can do this? Scott?

All of which would only indicate a perfectly human aversion to unpleasant tasks, except: (a) He's the President; and (b) It's not hard to appreciate that in this case: No, Mr. President, no one else can make this announcement but you. Really. His resistance (subconscious or not) to this plain-on-its-face political reality, more than anything else, is what convinces me that this little window we just got into the President's behavior off-camera is proof positive that he is, in fact, an idiot.