cover image White House Daze: The Unmaking of Domestic Policy in the Bush Years

White House Daze: The Unmaking of Domestic Policy in the Bush Years

Charles Kolb. Free Press, $22.95 (378pp) ISBN 978-0-02-917495-1

A staunch conservative who served as George Bush's deputy assistant for domestic policy, the author here points fingers at the indecisive, visionless president and his process-obsessed advisers, who, in Kolb's view, missed the chance to implement a domestic agenda. This is a lively, frank and sometimes ideological insider's account of the Bush administration His first target is his boss, Roger Porter, portrayed as a hard-working perfectionist who got bogged down in minutiae. Porter's ineffectiveness allowed the rise of aggressive, ambitious Richard Darman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, whom Kolb blames for getting Bush to renege on his pledge not to raise taxes. The book claims that Darman opposed creative efforts to develop a ``New Paradigm'' approach to social policy and that Bush ignored education goals developed by his staff. Kolb also argues that euphoria over his popularity following the Gulf War led the president to put off for much too long addressing crucial social and economic questions and that the Republicans' tendency to blur their ideological differences with the Democrats cost Bush a second term. (Nov.)