Bush's Reversals Made Without Humility

The Bush administration seems to think being in power means never having to say you were wrong.

Recent days have brought a remarkable set of policy reversals from the White House, but no concomitant humility. Ever skilled at claiming credit whether or not it's due, the administration has rolled out a series of "180's" without the slightest hint of this obvious point: What they were doing before wasn't working.

To hear them tell it, all these about-faces just magically popped into Karl Rove's head one balmy summer morning. Rest assured that the Bush team will find a way to score political points off these initiatives as the campaign season cranks up.

Consider:

After not just snubbing the United Nations, but going out of its way to portray the U.N. as irrelevant in the face of unipolar American superpower, the administration this week went back to New York in search of some real partners - Poland and Nicaragua don't quite cut it - to help secure and pay for the peace in Iraq. Bush and his lieutenants have spent months trashing the many reasonable voices who suggested long ago - even before the war - that "internationalizing" the conflict was the best way to succeed in Iraq.

And since inauguration day, the White House has pretended Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat doesn't exist. Now, with the recent crumpling of the "road map" to peace in Israel-Palestine, Secretary of State Colin Powell has gone begging for Arafat's help in bringing militants back to the negotiating table.

At home, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge this week touted a plan to train as many as 5,000 new air marshals to for airliner security. An excellent idea, but Bush and Ridge can hardly take credit for it. In fact, the administration earlier this year proposed cutting the air marshal program by 20%. It was only when members of Congress complained that Bush reversed course - then claimed the credit.

Finally, it's worth noting that this spring, the administration boasted it would seek new tax cuts every year Bush is in office. But by summer, Bush quietly acknowledged that the tax-cutting spree is over for now. To some, that reversal seems to confirm that even Bush is aware that deep, permanent tax cuts are ill-advised in tough economic times - otherwise, why not just keep cutting? But don't expect to hear the White House connecting those dots.

In truth, each of these initiatives has merit. The mounting costs, body count, and chaos in Iraq call for a broader international effort; whether or not the international community will respond remains to be seen. Arafat, distasteful as he is, still has the loyalty of more Palestinians than Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whose remaining tenure may be short, anyway. More air marshals? Good idea. What's baffling is why the White House ever thought we needed fewer. And even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warns that long-term tax cuts pose a serious threat to the health of the economy.

It's not the policy shifts that bother us, or even the flexibility. It's the attempt to co-opt the good ideas of Bush opponents, then try to convince voters that the President always has the answers, even when one day he says "black", and the next, "white".