Bush's X-Ray Vision Can't Penetrate Kerik Aura

Elisabeth Bumiller has scooped the entire White House press corp with this insight:

"The president loves cops," said a Republican close to the White House who insisted on anonymity because he did not want the president and his advisers to know he was talking about the collapse of a cabinet nomination. "They're not pretentious, they do a hard job, they don't get paid a lot of money, they're real people and they live in a world that is fairly black and white, with good guys and bad guys. And that's the way President Bush looks at the world."

Oh really? Wow, what insight! Bush sees the world in simple terms. Cops good. Terrorist bad. Just think, Bumiller puts up with this stuff.

"The greatest president we've ever had," Mr. Kerik said at a veterans' breakfast at the Seventh Regiment Armory in Manhattan on Nov. 11, 2001, when Mr. Bush embraced him.
"I have seen this war on terror up close and personal, and we are winning this war on all fronts," Mr. Kerik said in typical remarks at a campaign appearance in Portland, Me., on Oct. 22. He added that "thanks to President Bush's leadership, America is safer and stronger, more secure at home and confident in confronting terror abroad."

So the first key is to tell the President how great he is. Nothing is more important to this guy than surrounding himself with sycophants. Maybe they have learned something from this episode?

A Republican associated with the campaign, who also insisted on anonymity because White House officials have said they will not publicly comment further about Mr. Kerik, had high praise for Mr. Kerik's performance. "He is telegenic and articulate and uniquely credible," the Republican said. "Everybody who dealt with him dealt with somebody who was working very hard, who was a gentleman."

Uh, I guess they didn't learn anything about leaning too heavily on Bush's X-Ray vision which allows him to peer into people's souls. And that was an insight she could get only from an anonymous source.