Not Everyone Is Hailing the Chief at This Commencement

By Dan Eggen
Monday, May 26, 2008

P resident Bush was probably expecting a warm welcome at Furman University, a small Baptist-rooted school in Greenville, S.C., where he is delivering the commencement address on Saturday.

It hasn't quite turned out that way.

More than 200 faculty members and students signed a letter this month criticizing the Bush administration's policies on the Iraq war, secret interrogations, the environment and other issues. The letter says that although it would ordinarily be "an honor" to host a president, "these are not ordinary circumstances."

"We are ashamed of these actions of this administration," the letter reads, after listing objections to Bush. "Because we love this country and the ideals it stands for, we accept our civic responsibility to speak out against these actions that violate American values."

Coupled with talk that some faculty members might skip the commencement, the letter set off a firestorm on the generally conservative campus of about 2,600 students. A group of Bush supporters, "Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow," responded last week with a letter bearing more than 500 signatures.

"Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students' accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush," the second letter read.

Finally, university administrators weighed in with a statement, saying that faculty members must get permission to skip the ceremony but that an unidentified number had already been excused, based on "conscientious objection to the President's visit." The school also posted the letters from both sides on its Web site, http://www.furman.edu.

School officials noted that politicians and pundits from both parties had visited the campus recently, including the two Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.), and former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. "The intense discussion about the participation of the President of the United States in Furman's Commencement reaffirms the University's foundational commitment to being a crossroads of competing ideas and perspectives," the school's statement read.

The visit to Furman is one of three commencement addresses Bush is giving in his final year in office. He appeared May 4 in Greensburg, Kan., where the high school was torn apart last year by a tornado, and is to speak on Wednesday at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

Vice President Cheney delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., telling new officers last Wednesday that the war on terror will be lengthy but "does not have to go on forever."

Asked about White House reaction to the hubbub at Furman, spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said that "the cornerstone of our democracy is the right of people to peaceably express their views."

"The president looks forward to congratulating the graduates as they finish one chapter in their lives," she said.

One Man's Appeasement Is Another's Diplomacy

Speaking of hubbubs, Bush started a big one during his recent trip to the Middle East when he declared -- in front of the Israeli Knesset, no less -- that talking with "terrorists and radicals" such as Iran and Hezbollah was akin to the appeasement of the Nazis before World War II.

But last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested it was all a big misunderstanding.

"The president was using an historical point, which is that it's fine to talk to people, and that's not the problem," Rice said in an interview Thursday with the BBC. "As I said, we've offered to talk to Tehran. We do talk to Syria. The question is: What's going to be the outcome of the talk? You don't do diplomacy just to talk. You try to have outcomes."

Rice also addressed some of the developments that seem to undermine Bush's analogy. For example, his administration is involved in six-party talks with North Korea, which early in his tenure he called a member of the "axis of evil." early in his tenure.

Then there is the matter of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that Bush cited in his appeasement speech. It reached an accord last week with the government of Lebanon, which the administration supports.

Noting that Hezbollah "stood for election in Lebanon," Rice said: "We understand that the circumstances of some of our allies and the circumstances of the United States are not identical. So we wouldn't ask that every country behaves in exactly the same way that the United States does on these issues with Hezbollah."

This appeasement thing sure is complicated.

Welcome Back?

As his wife's chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination dwindle, perhaps former president Bill Clinton still has a chance at a different White House role?

The current president suggested Friday that he might like to reach out to Bill Clinton for help in pitching trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea that are going nowhere in the Democratic Congress.

After all, Bush noted in remarks on the South Lawn, Clinton "worked hard to open up markets," an apparent reference to his predecessor pushing through the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Later that day, Fox Business Network interviewer Neil Cavuto asked Bush about Clinton: "Would you ever invite him to say, 'Look, I'm having trouble pitching trade'?"

"Yes, I would," Bush replied.

That's not to say it would be easy. Hillary Clinton has had unkind things to say about NAFTA on the campaign trail and has sought to distance herself from her husband's trade policies. "Now, obviously, he's got an issue because his wife is running for president," Bush acknowledged. "I fully understand that."

"Would you ask him why his wife changed her mind?" Cavuto added.

"No, the voters do that," Bush said. "The voters get to do that."

Accentuating the Positive

During a speech last week at Fort Bragg, N.C., extolling progress in Iraq, Bush referred to the extreme difficulties that faced U.S. troops there two years ago.

"With Saddam [Hussein] gone, our job was to help the Iraqi people defend themselves against the extremists and to build a free society," Bush said. "In 2006, that mission was faltering."

Bush has not always been so plainspoken, however. In October 2006, just before the midterm elections, Bush said during a news conference: "Absolutely, we're winning."

He moderated his stance a bit two months later in an interview with The Post: "We're not winning; we're not losing."

But now, with improved conditions in Iraq, Bush has begun to more clearly acknowledge the earlier tough times. In an April television interview, he said he was "worried" and "thought it was failing" in 2006, but remained publicly upbeat "to bolster the spirits of the people in the field."

Quote of the Week

"Fiscal conservativism is one of my defining issues for the remaining months."

-- President Bush in Friday's Fox interview.