The Dispensable Line

OK, I know that it’s the political equivalent of the one-liner: a light, humorous statement designed to help the speaker and his audience relax into the moment. I know that he has used the same line, to my irritation, before now. I also know that, given that we are discussing a President’s Day speech, I should perhaps be more charitable to President Bush than I am about to be.

Unfortunately for me (and now, perhaps, you, dear reader), I believe that history and words matter.

It seems an innocuous enough statement: “I feel right at home here. After all, this is the home of the first George W.” What could be more natural a claim for our President to make? All Americans should feel at home at Mount Vernon -- even if such feelings are tempered with a respectful awe for what the Father of our Country accomplished and stood for in life and, through his Last Will and Testament, in death.

It is the end of the second sentence that rankles: “the first George W.” I don’t think the President or his speechwriters quite understand the significance of this formulation and what a poor light it sheds on President Bush by comparison.
Calling George Washington “the first’ echoes a title that Washington rejected more than once. He could have been king. Washington was urged to take on the title of King by some of his officers at the end of the Revolution but he rejected it. When the Newburg Conspiracy of 1783 raised the specter of the Continental Army marching on Congress in Philadelphia, he diffused their anger and frustration with a poignant reminder of what duty and ideals meant when he could have lead them and made himself an American Cromwell.

Instead of gathering more power to himself, he surrendered his commission -- and the dictatorial powers that it gave him -- back to Congress. It was an act so startling that George III declared that, if he did it, he would be the greatest man in the world. We, as a nation, considered it so magnificent an event that Congress commissioned John Trumbull to paint “General George Washington Resigning his Commission” and hang it in the Capitol Rotunda, placing it on par with the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the victories at Saratoga and Yorktown as a moment of decision in the formation of our nation.

Washington was also the man who chose to leave the Presidency after two terms, believing that it was imperative to set the precedent of having new presidents arrive because of an election rather than a funeral. In doing so, he, as always, placed the ideals of republican government over personal glory.

Washington made a career of walking away from power.

Our current President’s administration has made a reputation for gathering power to itself. It has been a part of its policy and part of a deeply held belief in executive authority held by many of its most prominent members, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney. It has done so to the point that more than one political cartoon has caricatured the President as King George.

I have no difficulty in hearing the President comparing himself favorably to prior Presidents. I have no objection to President Bush drawing parallels between himself and John Adams -- a President and patriot whom I greatly admire. There are a multitude of parallels between Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts and the USA PATRIOT Act, for example. I don’t even have a problem with President Bush comparing his attempts to wrestle with international terrorism, one of the subjects of his speech at Mount Vernon, with President Thomas Jefferson’s actions against the Barbary Pirates -- even though Jefferson was a founder of the Democratic Party.

But Washington? No. He was, as the title of James Thomas Flexner’s biography states, the indispensable man of the time. To try to say you are on par with his accomplishments, his character, and his sacrifice is an act of extreme hubris.

If I may borrow a construction for Lloyd Bentsen: Mr. President, I have studied George Washington. I admire George Washington. George Washington is a hero of mine. Mr. President, you’re no George Washington.

I suspect that no one is -- or can be.