MR. TOUGH GUY

You know we almost had Bernie Kerik as Secretary of Homeland Security in 2004 ... Bernie Kerik, who was N.Y.C. police commissioner under Rudy Giuliani and before that Giuliani's driver. Kerik had impressed El Presidente with his "swaggering confidence." Until someone also noticed, almost too late, Kerik's alleged ties to two New York crime families, including the Gambinos, his multiple alleged felonies including tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wiretapping.

According to Jonathan Chait, "The Kerik episode displayed many of the pathologies of modern Republican governance: incompetence, corruption, an obsession with loyalty over traditional qualifications. But it shows with particular clarity Bush's most distinct contribution: the mistaking of macho bluster for strategic acumen."

In Texas parlance, "All hat and no cattle."

Chait's larger point is that Bush's swooning hard-on for Kerik's macho exactly mirrors the American public's choice of Bush for the presidency, the failure of voters to ask whether the tough-talking bantum from Texas actually had a CLUE what he was talking tough about.