As Yuval notes, awarding the Medal of Freedom to former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, a close ally of Hillary Clinton’s and an enemy of most social policies that Bush voters champion, is a slap in the face, first to his own administration, and second to his constituents. It is tempting to speculate just what constituency he was seeking to reach out to with this choice: Women? Americans of Lebanese descent? Liberal educators? I could go on about Ms. Shalala’s PC particulars, but the point is that there are more appropriate choices in any of those categories.

It was said about the French House of Orleans, which provided many kings, but was not known for sagacity, that “they never forgot anything and the never learned anything.” (Cannot find a citation for this, though I can hear the professor saying it…) This seems to be true of the House of Bush, which has yet to realize that all the honors for, and compromises with, the other party get him nothing, and does not make him look wise and generous, but rather like a sucker. Is it possible that, seven years on, President Bush still recalls the always-exaggerated, bi-partisan efforts of the Texas years too fondly, and has not learned what Democrats in Washington, likely including former Clinton official Donna Shalala, think of him?