“A president more sensitive to his electoral predicament would not have chosen a right-winger like John Ashcroft for his cabinet. He would have been more careful to review the actions of the previous administration so as to avoid embarassing news stories such as the one about repealing regulations against arsenic in the water. He would have been more supportive of the members of his cabinet that were chosen to send soothing messages to the center of the electorate. And yet Secretary of State Colin Powell and Environmental Protection Adminstrator Christine Todd Whitman, two very moderate Republicans, have been regularly contradicted and put in their place by the Bush White House.”
