Staying the same, #2:

[jrittenhouse]

2000:NYT on ‘George W Bush - A Reformer With Results:

Mr. Bush in recent days has tried to cut into Mr. McCain’s appeal by calling himself a ”reformer with results” and pointing to his record as governor of Texas. And today he emphasized his record on tort reform and promised to reduce frivolous lawsuits in federal courts. Before Monday, Mr. Bush

Comments

[txtriffidranch]

Of course, the whole routine about his working with Democrats as Texas Governor was a lie, too. When Texas rewrote its Constitution after Reconstruction, the legislators at the time remembered the joys of having General Phil Sheridan as Governor and specifically gave all real power to the Lieutenant Governor. The Governor gets to appear in front of TV cameras and pretend to move the Lege, but the official that Molly Ivins used to call "the Lite Guv" is the one who calls the shots, and the only hope the Governor has of implementing any policies whatsoever is in either befriending or dominating the Lite Guv. Shrub was incredibly lucky in that he had the late Bob Bullock running things when he became Governor at the beginning of 1995, as Bullock had a state that was running quite nicely, and all Bush had to do was wave, look stupid, and then sneak back to his office to play video games. He may have talked about being bipartisan, but what it really meant was that he'd yell or wheedle, and then Bullock would do the actual lifting. When Bush became President, of course, he not only didn't have a Bullock, but he had a slimeball like Cheney who was perfectly willing to pretend to be working in the President's best interests.