My old friend Paul Burka, the Editor of Texas Monthly has some new thoughts on George W. Bush. Paul is a long time friend of the President, voted for him twice (the Analyst did not) and has been hoping that the President would be the kinder compassionate conservative that he was when he was Governor of Texas. Burka evidentially has lost that hope and in this month's Texas Monthly Paul lets go with his feelings on the former Governor of Texas.

Here is part of his story from Texas Monthly:

"Dick Cheney’s shooting of Austin lawyer Harry Whittington during a quail hunt shouldn’t have posed a problem for Bush. Accidents happen. But Cheney turned the episode into a public humiliation of the president. The information that eventually came out was embarrassing. Cheney didn’t call the president himself; he had an aide call the White House. The aide reported that a member of the hunting party had been shot but didn’t say who the shooter was. Karl Rove had to call ranch owner Katharine Armstrong to find out that Cheney was the triggerman. This was choreographed by a man thinking of himself, not of the president. No one outside the White House knows how long it took before Bush learned of Cheney’s involvement; after the incident became public knowledge, press secretary Scott McClellan declined to say. Doesn’t sound like the answer was “promptly,” does it? Meanwhile, Cheney and the White House punted the responsibility for telling the press about the shooting to Armstrong, who, unlike Cheney, could spin the story without consequences. Which she did. She told the Houston Chronicle that “[Whittington’s] pride was hurt more than anything else” and he was “bruised more than bloodied.” Some bruises! A collapsed lung, an injured trachea, and a pellet in the lining of his liver that required abdominal surgery, during which doctors checked his intestines by hand for perforations.

By the Monday press briefing after the Saturday shooting, it was clear that Cheney’s continued silence was causing problems for the president. The vice president behaved like a secretive, manipulative Rasputin who was flaunting his power to do as he chose, even when the entire country knew that Bush and his advisers wanted him to speak publicly. His refusal to do so (until the next day, when he chose the friendly venue of Fox News) was reminiscent of a spoiled child who knows that Daddy doesn’t want to make a scene in public. It made the president look ineffectual­and Cheney is too experienced a politician not to have known it.

Of all the incidents that have damaged the president, the most serious is the ports deal. Perhaps it is as innocuous as he insists it is, but his ardent defense of it­to the point of saying that he will veto any effort by Congress to overturn it­is the worst political decision he has made. Has the White House gone tone-deaf? Has Bush forgotten one of the first lessons he learned about politics, dating back to his race for governor against Ann Richards? Stay on message.The central theme of his presidency, since September 11, has been that he will go to any length to make America safe. After arguing that the Patriot Act is essential to our safety, that the war in Iraq is essential to our safety, that eavesdropping of questionable legality is essential to our safety, that his reelection is essential to our safety, he can’t expect the public and the Congress to accept that the ports deal has no impact on national security­especially when the Democrats have been saying all along that port security is our biggest problem. The merits of the deal don’t matter; this is political dynamite. If the deal goes through, the midterm elections are lost, which is why the GOP-led Congress will never allow it."

Paul suggests sending the Veep to some two years of state dinners and getting a new Secretary of Defense. Also Paul suggests :"Call on James A. Baker, who saved your presidency at the very start and might save it at the end. Colin Powell, who was a prophet without honor in the first term. Joe Lieberman. John McCain. Listen and learn."

But even Paul doesn't think that will happen and neither does this Analyst.