Beating the Bush

Last summer, President Bush uttered these lines: ''I would describe my relationship with the current leadership as basically nonexistent,'' Bush told reporters. ``You've heard the rhetoric and the names they've called me.'' In light of his recent official/state trip to Canada, I would have thought his words were prescient. Instead, they were directed to the leadership of the NAACP, whose president Kweisi Mfume, stepped down yesterday. Now, how can Bush attempt to "heal" the nation when he has refused to speak in front of the NAACP for four years running, even with an open invitation? His little verbal spat shows the Inner Bush, an insecure man who cannot accept criticism (wonder why he entered politics in the first place) either at home, or on the world stage where he aspires to be held in as much esteem as his close circle of advisors confer upon him. But why this curious little post? Because I noticed in the papers that Bush was invited to first speak in Parliment, which he declined. It is telling that the man who holds the most prominent democratic office in the world (small 'd' please...) lacked the backbone to address his neighbors in the pit of the institution which gave democracy to the English-speaking world - a popularly elected Parliment.