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463 21 Talking Frankly and Not Beating around the Bush Barney took the 2000 presidential election results in stride. Speaking at an ada counter-inaugural ball and fund-raiser, he told the gathering, “John ashcroft went to the world capital of bigotry, Bob Jones University, and accepted an honorary degree. They gave him a hood and it was white and it had eye holes in it.” he also said that he hoped that ralph nader, who played the role of spoiler in the election, and Gale norton, who favored opening up more federal lands for oil drilling and logging and was President George w. Bush’s choice for secretary of the interior, would “live happily ever after.” as president, George w. Bush had a nickname for most politicians. he called Barney “Sabretooth.” in early 2001, when the newly elected president met with house democrats, he faced several tough questions from members. after the session, a relieved President Bush approached Barney and thanked him for not asking any questions. although Barney and President Bush disagreed on most substantive issues, they had a good personal rapport and enjoyed one-on-one banter. The first time that Barney and his partner Sergio Pombo went to the Bush white house was for the annual christmas party for members of congress. a large model of the white house made out of gingerbread sat in the hallway and Barney noticed a small sign on it that read, “Beware of Barney.” when they entered the reception area and were greeted by President and mrs. Bush, Barney said to the president, “By the way, i didn’t take offense at that sign on the gingerbread white house that said, ‘Beware of Barney.’” “So long as you don’t do what Barney does in the white house,” the president replied, referring to his Scottish terrier. “what is that?” Barney asked. “he pisses all over the place,” the president said. “mr. President ,” Barney responded, “how about if i just piss on some of your legislation?” “you could tell that the president wanted to respond but couldn’t come up with a smart retort,” Sergio recalled. chapter Twenty-one 464 in the final year of his presidency, on monday evening, January 28, 2008, before delivering his last State of the Union address, President Bush walked up to Barney, who was talking on his cell phone in the Speaker’s lobby near the house chamber, patted him on the shoulder, leaned over, and remarked, “Tell him i said hello.” after the speech, Barney found the president in Statutory hall and told him, “mr. President, the person i was talking to when you said to say hello was my boyfriend.” “well,” President Bush said, “i hope you said how open-minded i am.” during the first term of Bush’s presidency, Barney disagreed with the suggestion by some democrats that Bush was incompetent. “he is very good at what he does, sometimes too good on the political side, from my standpoint. he is very clever politically,” Barney said. he views Bush’s presidency as a very conservative , right-wing administration, one that makes his father’s administration seem quite moderate by comparison. he has referred to George w. Bush as “the heir of ronald reagan.” one of the things people have to understand with politicians, Barney says, is that you should not confuse amiability with a lack of ideological fervor. Someone who is personally pleasant is not necessarily someone who is ideologically moderate. Personality and ideology are unrelated. he described President Bush as “a very amicable man who is uniformly pleasant company, it would appear to be most of the time” but he followed a “very, very right-wing course.” on virtually every issue, the budget, the environment, the rights of working people, in Barney’s view, the Bush administration was about as far to the right as it could go within the current framework of U.S. politics. Bush believed that the most effective way to reduce the level of government activity was to reduce government revenues. Barney called this restriction of government spending “starving the beast.” he believes that President Bush was unable to grasp the reality of the nation’s economy and subsequently the war in iraq. rather than the boy who cried wolf, he said, George Bush was the reverse. he claimed that there was nothing wrong when there was. he was “the boy who cried, ‘nice doggie.’” in the fall of 2001, Barney voted against the Patriot act...

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