What’s That?

First about the latter. George Bush was so pathologically partisan when he arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that he hardly had a moment for a Democrat or an independent liberal. Or a job. ~Marty Peretz

This is a statement about the President who appointed Norm Mineta–Norm Mineta!–Secretary of Transportation and invited Ted Kennedy to the White House to see Thirteen Days.  That was in the first month of his first term.  Back then, he still wanted to pretend that he was a “uniter.”  This might not matter, except that this is supposed to set up the stark contrast between Bush the newly-elected American President and Sarkozy the newly-elected French President, when there is actually no strong contrast with respect to appointing members of the other party as heads of government departments.