American Politics Journal

Don't Ask, Don't Tell 2001
The Stem Cell Debacle
By William Rivers Pitt

"If weakness may excuse,
What murtherer, what traitor, parricide,
Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it?
All wickedness is weakness: that plea therefore
With God or man will gain thee no remission."
-- John Milton

August 11, 2001 -- BOSTON (APJP) -- Four talk radio hosts of different political religion scream and rant at each other about Bush's decision on CNN. The wingnut guy from Alabama is the loudest, which is pleasing. Seeing the frothing GOP with its bare face hanging out on CNN will scare the cheese out of a good bit of America.

It is becoming clear that Bush really didn't make a decision here. He did a mighty straddle that gave something to both sides, but didn't satisfy either one. It's like a big 'time out'; the whole thing has been punted to Congress, which won't be back in DC for a while.

The lesson learned is this: politically, Bush is in enormous trouble. A President with solid ground under his feet would have been safe and able to make a hard decision one way or the other.

Bush, on the other hand, lives in fear of his Right flank. Watching CNN right now, I can understand why. If Alan Keyes, Gary "Pancake Man" Bauer, a solid wall of Catholics, and this fruit-bat radio voice ranting now on CNN put you on their hit list, you'd be worried, too.

Those guys could paralyze the ultraconservative wing of the GOP, even fracture it. Imagine if legions of anti-choicers fled the GOP for a hard anti-abortion candidate. Such thoughts are enough to make even Karl Rove loosen his tie.

On the Left is a Democratic Senate gearing up to lay waste to all the legislative victories he twisted out of the House. Kerry and Daschle have separately vowed to fight hammer and tong against Bush's energy, faith, and PBR bills. Clinton is back on the scene -- Elvis, Kennedy and Lothario on 125th Street -- and he is sure to fire some flaming arrows into the Bush camp before too much more time passes.

The media, despite our snarling, has been paying far more attention lately to the happenings in Florida. Though those reports do not come to the same conclusion we do, they leave a lingering stench that no amount of smirking can quell. Meanwhile, the man who won the 2000 election has begun making the rounds, dusting off his battle standards while sporting a grizzled, unshaven mien.

George is in a hell of a lot of trouble. He may act like he's got a mandate, he may fire out these crazy conservative thunderbolts, but this stem cell non-decision proves that when the chips are down, Bush will freeze for fear of upsetting the Right rock or the Liberal hard place.

These circumstances bring to mind another historic straddle. Bill Clinton found himself in similar circumstances early in his tenure. The media, in the guise of the venerable Helen Thomas, ambushed Clinton regarding his position on gays in the military. Clinton had no clear policy drawn up at the time, and immediately had to wing it.

The Left rose en masse to vociferously support the idea of integration, energized to frenzy with the idea that at last they had an ear in the White House. The Right, meanwhile, wrapped themselves in the burial shrouds of fallen soldiers and proclaimed that such a move would be tantamount to blasphemy.

We tend to forget what a train wreck the first month's of Clinton's administration were. He was on terribly unsteady ground, made all the more tremulous by the vitriol of his enemies. Faced with a barrage from both sides, Clinton struck a remarkable straddle of the issue by creating the now-infamous "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" policy.

This resolution satisfied no one at the time, and has recently been criticized as a completely failed idea. It was not something a President with strong political standing would have done.

When the integration question was put before him, Clinton was too concerned with the strength of his opponents if he went one way or the other. Thus, he pretty much went nowhere. Later, of course, his political power grew. "Don't Ask-Don't Tell," however, was the product of political weakness.

This stem cell decision is not something a strong President would do. Would Reagan, circa 1984, have hesitated to ban the research? Would Clinton, circa 1996, have hesitated to do the opposite? Bush flopped between these two standards. Like Clinton in 1993, he can not move on this issue for fear of a checkmate that could come from virtually any direction.

His mandate leaves no footprints, and he knows it. This decision proves it.