Gary Markowitz

--"Oh Holy Night," Words by Chappeau de Roquemaure. Translated by John S. Dwight

I hate the way the press protects his stupidity. --Bushwatcher, 12/03/01

BUSH: "You know, if you find a person that you've never seen before getting in a crop-duster that doesn't belong to you, report it...."Press Conference, 10/11/01

from the Washington Post, Oct 3: "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." --Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2001

"But even in the tension of war preparation, Bush gave a clear sign that things were returning to normal, as he employed his favorite malapropism, "misunderestimate," three times in as many sentences."The folks who conducted to act on our country on September 11th made a big mistake," he said. "They underestimated America. They underestimated our resolve, our determination, our love for freedom. They misunderestimated the fact that we love a neighbor in need. They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too."" --Washington Post, 0/27/01 [but see Censored.]

"To the book of "Bushisms," add a footnote on Fleischerisms. Announcing President Bush's schedule on Thursday, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the president was meeting with religious leaders "to talk about the importance of tolerism, er, tolerance." Later in his morning briefing, Fleischer repeated the nonword, "tolerism." Reporters more accustomed to hearing such malaprops from the president himself could barely stifle their laughter. Fleischer jokingly begged: 'Don't think what you all are thinking! That was MY word. Stop it!'" --Washington Post, 9/20/01

"Sometimes we agree. Sometimes we don't. But I tell you we'll always answer his phone." --Speaking to a Labor Day crowd in Kaukauna, Wis., about Carpenters' Union President Doug McCarron, 9/3/01. AP

"Bush, who has tweaked the press about his choice of Crawford -- a sunbaked crossroads where summer temperatures hover around the century mark -- suspecting them of a preference for 'sucking in the salt air' on the East Coast, displayed similar disdain for those who would vacation on the West Coast. 'Brie and cheese,' he sniffed after learning one reporter had just returned from California." --Reuters, 8/23/01

"An expert in Texas trees, described by Bush as 'an arbolist,' is coming soon to identify all the varieties at the ranch. 'Look up the word,' he said. 'I don't know, maybe I made it up. Anyway, it's an arbo-tree-ist, somebody who knows about trees.'" --Judy Keen, 8/21/01

"Bush at night hatches quizzical new phrases. In Denver and Albuquerque, he talked about the "so- called surplus," making it sound as if he doubted the existence of the very money he deemed so bountiful that a tax cut was necessary. And Bush at night latches onto adjectives and doesn't let go. Eight times in about one minute, he called Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, for whom he was raising money at the Albuquerque event, "passionate," and Mr. Domenici's passions knew no bounds. "Pete is passionate about the budget," the president said. He then erased more than two months of Congressional history, traveling back to a time before Democrats took control of the Senate, and put Mr. Domenici in charge of the Senate budget committee once again. "I can assure you, Mr. Chairman," Mr. Bush said to him, hurriedly adding: "Or I wish would be Mr. Chairman — should be Mr. Chairman, and will be Mr. Chairman after next 2002." Not to be confused with last 2002." --Frank Bruni, 8/19/01

"Well, sometimes we see the will on the other side, and sometimes that cycle overcomes the will. There's a lot of people in the Middle East who are desirous to get into the Mitchell process, but first things first. These terrorist acts and the responses have got to end in order for us to get the framework -- the groundwork, not framework -- the groundwork to discuss a framework, to lay the -- all right." --Bush Rmks To Travel Pool, 8/13/01

"We will never get to Mitchell until the leadership works to reduce and stop violence. These terrorists acts, which are despicable, will prevent us from ever getting into the Mitchell process. My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the -- in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen. And so long as terrorist activities continue, it will be impossible to get into Mitchell or any other discussion about peace under the threat of terrorism." --to reporters, 8/13/01

"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right," he said, to the confusion of some of the listening journalists during an informal meeting near the steps of Rome in Italy where orators used to speak. --Reuters, 7/23/01

"After the [Ellis Island citizenship] ceremony, Bush led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance, mistakenly urging them to hold up their right hands rather than place them on their hearts, as is customary. 'Right hand up, please,' Bush said, prompting most of the group to follow suit, before catching his mistake. 'Actually right hand on your heart.'" --Reuters, 7/11/01

"Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great inalienable rights of our country. We're blessed with such values in America. And I--it's--I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful values."--Visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 2, 2001

"I'm sure you can imagine it's an unimaginable honor to live here." --June 18, 2001 in a White House address to agriculture leaders. (thanks, Sari)

"When George W. Bush announced from Sweden on June 14 that he planned to pull the US Navy out of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques by 2003, it struck some as odd when he referred to the people of Vieques, all US citizens, as "our friends and neighbors" who "don't want us there." It was as though he was saying Puerto Rico is a foreign country." --Falcon

"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease."--After meeting with the leaders of the European Union, Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001

"President Bush reports that European leaders are warming up to his missile defense plan now that he has gone over and explained to them "the logic behind the rationale." Now, whatever you do, don't try to examine the phrase "the logic behind the rationale" logically. I tried, and the results weren't pretty:
"A rationale, of course, is the logic behind some position or course of action. So the "logic behind the rationale" is the logic behind the logic behind some position or course of action—a concept I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around. Of course, if we adopt the more cynical sense of the word "rationale"—the purported but not actual logic behind a position—then Bush's phrase could have some actual meaning. For example: Maybe he explained to European leaders that behind the official rationale for missile defense—smacking down missiles launched by wacko leaders of rogue states—lie the actual goals of feeding the military industrial complex and keeping Donald Rumsfeld off the streets. But somehow I doubt it, even though one of those goals would indeed be laudable." --Robin Wright, 6/19/01

"Anyway, I'm so thankful, and so gracious--I'm gracious that my brother Jeb is concerned about the hemisphere as well."--Miami, Fla., June 4, 2001

"Russia is no longer our enemy, and therefore we shouldn't be locked into a Cold War mentality that says we keep the peace by blowing each other up. In my attitude, that's old, that's tired, that's stale."--Des Moines, Iowa, June 8, 2001

"Bush, in a taped interview with Spanish TV 'mispronounced the prime minister's name.' Bush 'said he looked forward to meeting Aznar -- but the name came out as Anzar.' Bush also 'mangled Spanish grammar with gender disagreement and emphasis on the wrong syllables.' 'If I don't practice I am going to destroy this language' -- President Bush, on his Spanish." --AP, 6/12/01, as reported by Hotline.

"Our nation must come together to unite." --Tampa, Fla., June 4, 2001

"If a person doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have, I suspect hope is in the far distant future, if at all."--Remarks to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2001

"Thirdly, the explorationists are willing to only move equipment during the winter, which means they'll be on ice roads, and remove the equipment as the ice begins to melt, so that the fragile tundra is protected." --Conestoga, Pa., May 18, 2001

IS BUSH CLOSE ENOUGH FOR GOVERNMENT WORK? Ever since mainstream reporters filed their Bush First Hundred Days reports, they've gone easy on him about his verbal gaffes. He's still providing his Bushisms, but they're not being reported and the transcripts of his spur-of-the-moment informal press conferences are being cleaned up. During Friday's sneak attack by Bush on the English language, a Bush Watcher caught him saying de-ter-iate for "deteriorate," hay-ee-nous for "heinous," and vent-ed for "vetted." Please keep us informed of future Bush verbal transgressions while the media continues to be derelict in its duties. --Politex, 5/14/01

"But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe."--Washington, D.C., May 1, 2001

Here's what Bush said about how far he would have the U.S. go to defend Taiwan: "Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend theirself." --Good Morning America, April 25, 2001

It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more trade, there's more commerce."--Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001

"This administration is doing everything we can to end the stalemate in an efficient way. We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end."--Washington, D.C., April 10, 2001

"The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person's race."--Washington, D.C., April 5, 2001

"And we need a full affront on an energy crisis that is real in California and looms for other parts of our country if we don't move quickly."--Press conference, Washington, D.C., March 29, 2001

"I've coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically."--Radio-Television Correspondents Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 29, 2001

"But the true threats to stability and peace are these nations that are not very transparent, that hide behind the--that don't let people in to take a look and see what they're up to. They're very kind of authoritarian regimes. The true threat is whether or not one of these people decide, peak of anger, try to hold us hostage, ourselves; the Israelis, for example, to whom we'll defend, offer our defenses; the South Koreans."--Media roundtable, Washington, D.C., 3/13/01

I think there is some methodology in my travels."--Washington, D.C., March 5, 2001, NYT, 3/9/01

The State Department is playing down comments by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who officials say misspoke twice last week on key mainstays of U.S. international policy -- one relating to Jerusalem, the other to Taiwan. The controversial statements came during Powell's testimony to Congress about President Bush's international affairs budget and hot spots for U.S. policy. One comment involved U.S. policy on Jerusalem, which both the Israelis and the Palestinians claim as their capital. The United States has long maintained that the fate of Jerusalem is a "final status" issue to be negotiated between the parties. But last Wednesday, when asked by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about President Bush's plans to move the U.S. embassy out of Tel Aviv, Powell said the president was committed to moving "the embassy to the capital of Israel, which is Jerusalem." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the comment an inadvertent mistake and said U.S. policy on Jerusalem remained unchanged....

Officials say Powell's other mistake came during testimony last Thursday before the House International Relations Committee when Powell, while talking about arms sales to Taiwan, twice referred to Taiwan as the Republic of China.... According to Boucher, the Chinese called the State Department to raise questions about Powell's comments. "We replied very clearly that U.S. policy has not changed regarding unofficial relations with Taiwan," he said. "We don't normally use the term and I don't think we'll be using it in the future." On the whole, Boucher chalked up the statements to Powell's speaking style. Boucher noted Powell often appears before Congress and the news media without the piles of briefing notes characteristic of his predecessor, Madeleine Albright. "If we want to praise the secretary for being open and speaking English and talking without following a specific script, one would also have to accept that," Boucher said. "The language might be a little looser at times." "So don't get too excited over one word here, one word there," he added." --CNN, 3/14/01

"President Bush told President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea today that he would not resume missile talks with North Korea anytime soon, putting aside the Clinton administration's two-year campaign for a deal and the eventual normalization of relations with the reclusive Communist state. Mr. Bush's comments, while couched in reassuring statements about the American alliance with South Korea, came as a clear rebuff to President Kim. Awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to open dialogue across one of the most heavily armed borders on earth, the South Korean leader has told American officials that he believes there is only a narrow window of opportunity to seize on North Korea's recent willingness to emerge from its diplomatic seclusion.

....In a brief exchange with reporters after meeting Mr. Kim in the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said: "We're not certain as to whether or not they're keeping all terms of all agreements." But the United States has only one agreement with North Korea - the 1994 accord that froze North Korea's plutonium processing at a suspected nuclear weapons plant. And at a briefing this afternoon two senior administration officials, asked about the president's statement, said there was no evidence that North Korea is violating its terms. Later, a White House spokesman said that Mr. Bush was referring to his concern about whether the North would comply with future accords, even though he did not use the future tense. "That's how the president speaks," the official said." --NYT, 3/8/01

"Of all states that understands local control of schools, Iowa is such a state." --Council Bluffs, Iowa, 2/28/01

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman "and I will carry out this equivocal message to the world: Markets must be open." --WP, 3/3/O1

"Those of us who spent time in the agricultural sector and in the heartland, we understand how unfair the death penalty is -- the death tax is. I don't want to get rid of the death penalty, just the death tax." --AP, 2/28

"Education is not my top priority." (REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN APPLAUD) "Education is my top priority." --Budget Speech, 2/27

"My pan plays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt." --Budget Speech, 2/27

"[We can learn] from our conscience and from our fellow citizens, the highest PROSSIBLE praise: well done, good and faithful servants." --Budget Speech, 2/27

Feb. 24, 2001..."Laura and I are looking forward to having a private dinner with he and Mrs. Blair Friday night." --Bush to reporters, Reuters

Feb. 9, 2001...""One reason I like to highlight reading is, reading is the beginnings of the ability to be a good student. And if you can't read, it's going to be hard to realize dreams; it's going to be hard to go to college. So when your teachers say, read—you ought to listen to her."—Nalle Elementary School, Washington, D.C.

Feb. 8, 2001..."It's good to see so many friends here in the Rose Garden. This is our first event in this beautiful spot, and it's appropriate we talk about policy that will affect people's lives in a positive way in such a beautiful, beautiful part of our national—really, our national park system, my guess is you would want to call it."—Washington, D.C.

Feb. 7, 2001..."We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House—make no mistake about it."—Washington, D.C.

Jan. 29, 2001...A president's right to grant...pardons is "inviolate, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "It's an important part of the office. I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but my predecessors as well." --NYT, 1/29/01

Jan. 14, 2001..."Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be an assignment." --NYT, 1/14/01

Jan. 11, 2001...He said he wanted his administration to be remembered for making America "a more literate country and a hopefuller country." --Reuters, Bush Chooses Trade Rep

BUSH COMES THROUGH WITH BUSHISMS

What's a Bush debate without Bushisms, right? Here's what Time's James Posniewozik wrote. Bush "did manage a couple of Bushisms, including "There has to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children." Perhaps the most interesting line of the debate, in fact, came when Bush decried how the killers at Columbine could "have their hearts turned dark as a result of being on the Internet." One could say that ascribing a mass medium with the power literally to make people evil is a rather silly and disturbing argument to be put forth by a candidate for the leadership of a democracy. But I digress. Now, go forth, my readers, and kill! Kill! Kill! Rise up, my vast army, and do the sacred bidding of your dark master!" 10/12/00

10/1... AUSTIN, Sept. 30 –– Texas Gov. George W. Bush declared this week that Vice President Gore would create "over 200,000 new or expanded federal programs." He meant 200. Bush said that with education funds, "the federal government ought to have maximum flexibility." He meant that the flexibility should be with the states that receive the money. Bush said he has "ruled out no new Social Security taxes." Of course, he meant he has ruled out new Social Security taxes. In Beaverton, Ore., he said, "More and more of our imports come from overseas." In Redwood City, Calif., he promised "a foreign-handed policy," when he meant "an even-handed foreign policy." --Mike Allen, WASHINGTON POST

9/27... At a town hall-style event in Redwood City, Calif., Tuesday morning, Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush was asked by an audience member if he would have an “even-handed” policy when dealing with the Middle East. Bush reassured the potential voter, “I will have a foreign-handed policy.” —John Berman, ABCNEWS

9/8...Republican officials anxious about his slippage in the polls are fair-weather friends, [Bush] said. "That's Washington," he said. "That's people getting ready to jump out of the foxhole before the first shell is fired." Detroit Free Press (thanks to Lois White)

MAJOR LEAGUE BUSHISM"There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times.'' An Aside to Dick Cheney as they stood together this morning on a Labor Day rally platform in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Cheney responded, "Oh yeah, he is, big time." A Bush spinner said the Texas Governor is angry with reporter Clymer because he wrote about Bush's Texas record. More than once. During the rally, Bush told the crowd that it was "time to get some plain-spoken folks'' in Washington, D.C., but observers assume he didn't mean that plain-spoken. --Politex, 9/4/00 from a Reuters report.

BUSH'S TEXAS CHAIN-SAW MASSACRE (OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

"In the midst of a tour to promote his views on education, Texas Gov. George W. Bush may have set a personal record for bloopers in one speech. In 15 minutes, he mistook "terrors" (or was it "terriers"?) for "tariffs" and "hostile" for "hostage" (twice), and asserted that President Clinton has been in office for four –– not eight –– years." (WP 8/22)

Here are the actual sentences from Monday's speech: ""When we carry Iowa in November, it'll mean the end of four years of Clinton-Gore.... We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile or hold our allies hostile....."I will work to end terrors and tariffs and barriers everywhere across the world so that Iowa farmers can sell their product in countries heretofore where the doors have been closed."

Bush also made sure that entrepreneurs would get a lion's share of whatever he was promising to give out: ''This campaign not only hears the voices of the entrepreneurs and the farmers and the entrepreneurs, we hear the voices of those struggling to get ahead,'' he said. Some observers understood this to mean that Bush no longer feels that the nation's farmers are in need of help from the government. Last Friday on the campaign trail the Texas Governor accused Gore of advocating "class warfore." --Politex, 8/23/00

8/13... "I wish I could turn to the soldiers on that ship," Mr. Bush said, erroneously referring to the sailors on an aircraft carrier in the backdrop, "and I wish they could hear me: stay in the military, there's a new commander in chief coming." --New York Times

7/19... George W. Bush's new Web site, www.georgewbush.com, states that the No. 3 priority of the campaign is "Putting Education First." --Al Kamen, Washington Post

7/1... "Unfairly but truthfully, our party has been tagged as being against things. Anti-immigrant, for example. And we're not a party of anti-immigrants. Quite the opposite. We're a party that welcomes people." --Cleveland, Ohio

6/28..."The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective." --Wayne, Michigan, reported by Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times, June 28, 2000.

6/10... "If you’re asking me whether or not as to the innocence or guilt or if people have had adequate access to the courts in Texas, I believe they have." --Response to an AP Reporter

5/18..."[Rudy Giuliani] has certainly earned a reputation as a fantastic mayor because the results speak for themselves. I mean, New York's a safer place for him to be." --The Edge With Paula Zahn

5/14... "The fact that he relies on facts--says things that are not factual--are going to undermine his campaign." --New York Times

5/10...""I think we agree, the past is over."—-On his meeting with John McCain, Dallas Morning News.

5/5..."It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."--In answer to the charge that, as Texas governor, he did not make up a state budget, Reuters.

4/26..."I hope we get to the bottom of the answer. It's what I'm interested to know." --On Elian negotiations, AP.

3/2... "I've got a record, a record that is conservative and a record that is compassionated." --NYT Debate Transcript

2/23..."It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature." (Los Angeles)--Slate, 2/29

2/25... "After he had failed a reporter's pop quiz last fall about foreign leaders, including the name of the Indian prime minister, Mr. Bush winced today when a moderator mentioned the words "pop quiz." Jokingly, Mr. Bush dared the moderator to ask him the name of the Indian president. "Do you know who the president of India is?" the moderator asked obligingly. "Vajpayee," Mr. Bush said, grinning and looking pleased with himself. But Atal Behari Vajpayee is the prime minister of India; the president is K. R. Narayanan." --New York Times, 2/26

2/23... "I don't have to accept their tenants. I was trying to convince those college students to accept my tenants. And I reject any labeling me because I happened to go to the university." --Today

2/23...It is not Reaganesque to support a tax plan that is Clinton in nature." (Los Angeles)--Slate, 2/29

2/20..."I don't want to win? If that were the case why the heck am I on the bus 16 hours a day, shaking thousands of hands, giving hundreds of speeches, getting pillared in the press and cartoons and still staying on message to win?" --Newsweek (Feb. 28 edition)

"I thought how proud I am to be standing up beside my dad. Never did it occur to me that he would become the gist for cartoonists." --ibid.

2/20..."Really proud of it. A great campaign. And I'm really pleased with the organization and the thousands of South Carolinians that worked on my behalf. And I'm very gracious and humbled." --to Cokie Roberts (This Week)

2/17..."The senator has got to understand if he's going to have--he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road." --to reporters in Florence, S.C. (Slate)

2/16/00... "If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign." --Hilton Head, S.C. (Slate)

2/15/00... "Bush mispronounced the words "tactical," "nuclear," and Lugar" (as in Sen. Dick) in the course of a single sentence. A few moments later, he mangled "admirably" beyond recognition, and left viewers wondering how many syllables the word "strategic" has. (Two, three or four, by Bush's count.) At another point, he declared that as Americans, "we ought to make the pie higher." Huh?"--Tucker Carlson

2/14/00..."There is madmen in the world, and there are terror." (AP)
For parents bothered by the amount of profanity and violence on TV, he recommended a simple solution: "Put the 'off' button on." (AP)

2/7/00 (circa)...Bush recalled his time as a Texas oil man and how the experience shaped his views in support of entrepreneurs. "I understand small business growth.I was one." (AP)

1/30/00..."This is preservation month. I appreciate preservation. It's what you do when you run for president. You've got to preserve." Presidential candidate George W. Bush, praising students at Fairgrounds Elementary School in Nashua, N.H., for their "theme of the month," which was actually perseverance. (Newsweek)

1/19/00..."What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position." (Molly Ivins)

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