How whiny white folks see BushWorld

At least the most adoring Bush loyalists among them, anyway. From Fred Barnes delivered the talking points by Isaac Chotiner Washington Monthly Mar 2006, a review of the new book by FOX commentator Fred Barnes called Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush (urp!):

[T]he ... central ... argument of the book - Bush is a rebel, some metaphoric combination of Robin Hood and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: "President Bush operates in Washington like the head of a small occupying army of insurgents, an elected band of brothers (and quite a few sisters) on a mission. He's an alien in the realm of the governing class, given a green card by voters." For Barnes to present Bush as a conservative outsider, bravely fighting an uphill battle and bucking the liberal establishment, seems especially strained as the country enters another year under Republican control of Washington.

Chotiner talks about how Barnes' own earlier experiences in a Washington less completely dominated by the Halliburton Republicans may contribute to his view of Bush as a bold rebel. Still:

But even among the most recent arrivals to the capital, the victim mentality perfectly captured by Rebel-in-Chief is still the norm. ...

[T]he conventional wisdom seems to be that the Republicans have not adjusted to being a governing party. Maybe so. It is no wonder conservatives cannot see themselves as being truly in charge when they see our two-term, 43rd president, son of the 41st, as a rebel fighting against the dark force of elite opinion.

Yep, that Dubya, he's a real James Dean. A heckuva rebel, we might say.

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