TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/110590/1105108.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.4 KB | 115 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 32

The Perfect Spy


There's only one explanation for Bush's political behavior: the
President is a closet Democrat

By MICHAEL DUFFY/WASHINGTON -- With reporting by Laurence I.
Barrett and Dan Goodgame/Washington


    It was a scheme ripped from the pages of John le Carre. Not
long after the end of World War II, Democratic Party elders
tapped a malleable Yalie and gave him orders for life: move to
Texas, infiltrate the Republican Party and start a long, quiet
climb to power. His mission: destroy the G.O.P. from within.
Mastering the finer points of mesquite barbecue and duck-blind
repartee, the spy rose through the ranks, performing minor
tasks for party leaders along the way. Years later, just as
planned, the deep-cover agent finally became President.

    Now the shocking story can be told: George Bush is a
Democrat in disguise, a mole who has burrowed deep behind enemy
lines for the sake of the party of the working stiff. It is the
only logical explanation for the President's recent political
behavior. Even top Democrats have begun to lift the veil on
their mission impossible. "The President has been our best
ally," says Paul Tully, political director of the Democratic
National Committee. "We're just trying to stay out of his way."

    Consider the damage Bush has done to the G.O.P. in the past
five months. In June he surrendered the Republicans' best
campaign issue by abandoning his no-new-taxes pledge. During
the budget debacle, he revived the G.O.P.'s image as the party
of the rich by demanding a capital-gains tax cut that would
have mainly benefited those who earn more than $200,000
annually. He torpedoed the party's effort to expand its base
by vetoing a civil rights bill that would have made it easier
for women and minorities to prove job discrimination. He
unleashed his truculent chief of staff, John Sununu, on
congressional Republicans who opposed him. Last week he worked
behind the scenes to fire Ed Rollins, co-chairman of the
G.O.P.'s congressional campaign committee. With enemies like
Bush, the Democrats don't need friends.

    Rollins had to be eliminated because he had discovered
Bush's true identity as a closet Democrat and was trying to
unmask the traitor in public. He sealed his fate when, on
Oct.15, he faxed a memo to Republican candidates containing
these instructions: "Do not hesitate to oppose either the
President or proposals being advanced in Congress."

    The memo infuriated Bush, but many Republicans followed
Rollins' advice anyway. Those unlucky enough to merit a
presidential visit have been putting as much distance as
possible between themselves and the party leader. Last week,
at a breakfast in Burlington, Vt., Representative Peter Smith
ticked off his differences with Bush while the Commander in
Chief sat nearby, determinedly mowing down a stack of pancakes.
Later, at a fund-raising lunch in Manchester, N.H., for
Representative Robert Smith, who is trying to graduate to the
Senate, the candidate didn't bother to show up at all. One
White House aide tried to explain away the trip's miscues as
"a study in ineptitude." But it was all in a day's work for the
Perfect Spy.

    None of Bush's schemes have been as destructive to
Republicans as his cunning "surcharge" gambit. The President
stubbornly resisted an income tax surcharge on millionaires,
a brilliant maneuver that delivered the tax-fairness issue to
Democrats and drove multitudes of resentful voters into the
Democratic fold just weeks before a midterm election. The
Democrats milked the surcharge for a week, then caved in,
careful to preserve the issue. They know their agent in the
Oval Office will rush to the defense of millionaires again next
year.

    So transparent were these covert operations that Bush was
forced to take desperate measures to rebuild his cover. He
launched a four-day campaign swing through California, Hawaii
and Oklahoma, attacking Democrats as taxers and spenders. Bush
knows that Republicans must lose no more than 10 House seats
if he is to remain above suspicion. "We're the party that's
trying to keep the taxes down," Bush said before he left. "When
they talk about taxing the rich, they're really talking about
taxing the working men and women of this country." As
counter-intelligence experts know, a spy-on-the-run often cloaks
his true colors in a coat of loyalist rhetoric.

    Even if he's caught, Bush's performance has already exceeded
his Democratic handlers' wildest dreams. In a poll taken for
the Wall Street Journal and NBC News last week, voters were
asked which party would do a better job of dealing with the
economy. The verdict: 31% picked the Democrats, while 30%
favored Republicans, a 15-point turnaround since last November.
The proportion of Americans who believe things are going "very
or fairly well" has dipped to 38%, the lowest in nine years,
according to the latest TIME/CNN polling figures. The President
has even cut his own approval rating more than 20 points in two
months. So little is left for Bush to do, it may be time to
come in from the cold.

    Of course the President won't admit to being a Democratic
spy. But in an unguarded moment last week in Connecticut, he
pronounced himself "confused." If he stays that way much
longer, Democrats may regret that Bush has but one life to give
to their party.