Frankly, GOP may have to give a damn

Fortunately for George W. Bush, the first issue of Talk Magazinefeatured Hillary Rodham Clinton blaming her husband's glandular lifeon his grandmother. The resulting hilarity distracted attention fromTucker Carlson's profile of Bush in the same issue.

Carlson, a writer for the conservative Weekly Standard, admiresBush, but his article has dismayed some Republicans, who understandhow heavily invested their party is in Bush. They are not sufferingbuyer's remorse, but they are unsettled by what the profile suggestsabout the candidate's frame of mind and judgment.

Bold type over Carlson's article says: "George W. Bush doesn'tgive a damn what you think of him. That may be why you'll vote forhim for president." But few will think more of Bush after readingthe article.

Regarding Carlson's reporting of Bush's several uses of the f-word, Karen Hughes, Bush's communications director, who travels withhim, says, "I don't remember those words being used." She says Bushagrees with those who say such language is inappropriate. Carlson,who says he remembers the words, quotes a Bush aide who says Bush"used to say `f---' a lot more before this all started."

Dwight Eisenhower could turn the air blue with barracks profanity.Ronald Reagan, too, knew the pleasures of salty language. But not infront of the children, meaning the press.

The most disquieting aspect of Carlson's report of Bush's languageis not what it says about Bush's ability to dignify politics afterClinton's squalor. Rather, it is that Bush may have been showing offfor Carlson, daring to be naughty. He may be proving hisindependence, which Carlson likes, but it is independence fromstandards of public taste.

Carlson reports asking Bush whether he met with any people whocame to Texas to protest the execution of murderer Karla Faye Tucker.Bush said no, adding: "I watched (Larry King's) interview with(Tucker), though. He asked her real difficult questions, like `Whatwould you say to Gov. Bush?' " Carlson asked, "What was heranswer?" and writes:

" `Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation,`don't kill me.' "

Hughes, who says Bush's decision not to commute Tucker's sentencewas "very difficult and very emotional," says Carlson's report is "atotal misread" of Bush. Carlson, who describes Bush as "smirking,"says: "I took it down as he said it."

Nothing resembling the King-Tucker exchange that Bush describesappears in the transcript of King's hourlong Jan. 14, 1998, program.And it is difficult to imagine anything Bush said that Carlson mayhave "misread" that could do Bush credit.

Again, what is troubling to Republicans who have plighted theirtroth to this man is not that they think he is a coarse or cruel man.Rather it is that Carlson's profile suggests an atmosphere ofadolescence.

Bush recently has referred to Greeks as "Grecians," Kosovars as"Kosovians," East Timorese as "East Timorians," conservatism as"conservativism" and confused Slovenia with Slovakia. Such slips areunderstandable; none is a flogging offense. However, havingcommitted them, Bush should take care not to exacerbate the suspicionthat he has a seriousness deficit.

"You get the sense," Carlson writes, "that if Bush had chosen hisown campaign slogan he would have printed bumper stickers that readGEORGE W. BUSH: SO SECURE, HE DOESN'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF HIM."But Jefferson, who knew something about declaring independence,recommended a "decent respect" for opinion.

Bush is taking a political party along on his ride. He and itwill care if on Nov. 7, 2000, people think of Al Gore or Bill Bradleyas an unexciting but serious professor and of him as an amiablefraternity boy, but a boy.