Having signed a $1.35 trillion tax-cut into law and organized a tee ball game on the South Lawn, President Bush has now turned his attention to 2004. Not that the first six months of his presidency were totally divorced from 2004, but with the tax-cut behind him George W. is now liberated. He can put his first term behind him.
Says who? Karl Rove, of course.
Rove, not Commerce Secretary Don Evans, not Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld, not Vice President Cheney, will decide whether the Pentagon is forced to surrender the 1700 MHz band to the wireless industry for 3G wireless systems. The smart money is on industry, with its fat wallet and army of lobbyists, to triumph in the spectrum brawl with DoD. The telltale signs are there for all to see.
Rove is Bush’s political guardian angel. He got Bush elected president when various economic, political and historical indicators-not to mention a majority of voters-suggested he should have lost. But he didn’t. No wonder then, that for Bush, Rove walks on water.
So what that Rove met with Intel Corp. executives in March, at which time the issue of a pending merger between a Dutch firm and an Intel supplier happened to come up. Rove has since divested $100,000 worth of Intel stock. No matter. Bush says he’s as confident as ever in Rove. Rove, who already knew he had the president’s confidence, now realizes he also has artistic license.
So it was that Bush-the free trader-decided to protect the U.S. steel industry from subsidized imports and that Bush-the hawk-decided to cease bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
Other Republican free-traders held back criticism of the protectionist trade action, no doubt realizing steel-producing swing states of West Virginia and Pennsylvania may require compassion if the GOP is to keep hold of the White House for another four years. Not so with Vieques. Top brass were outraged and congressional armed services committee members distressed, notwithstanding the prospect that this act of treason could help Bush shore up support among the increasing politically potent Hispanic vote. Rumsfeld, on his second tour as defense czar and a seasoned Washington insider, was reduced to a timid response.
More than any Evans comment, any Hill letter or any other political expression made to date on 3G, the steel and Vieques decisions provide the most meaningful indication of where The Great Spectrum Debate could be headed. Rove must have studied Clinton closely. How else would Bush have come to realize that a president is most useful to his party, not by adhering to its dogma or conventions, but by remaining in power? The check is in the mail. 3G spectrum at 1700 MHz isn’t far behind.
