Bush IS a coward, and it needs to be said a thousand times. Acknowledging it needs to become common sense, just as his incompetence has.
However, Frank Rich is wrong when he says:
Mr. Bush's cowardice is arguably more responsible for the calamities of his leadership than anything else.
That's not true, and it's important to realize the implications of Rich's misstatement, in a piece that is otherwise laser-sharp (A Profile in Cowardice , NYT, today).
See why he's wrong below the fold
Rich's statement assumes that Bush’s initiatives might work if he had the guts to follow through on them. The statement is more than arguable, it's an unpardonable exaggeration. Enjoyable, it's true, as it swats back the rhetoric of strident B-Leaguers. But it doesn't question their views.
In leaving open the possibility that Bush is correct, but weak, Rich glosses over the main point: Bush's ideas are mostly unfounded and his policies contrary to practical reality.
He is the spokesperson for a jerry-rigged coalition of the Right, held together by some common elements but most importantly by the bravado, abstractness and unilaterality of its partisan style. The nature of that (self-described "conservative") coalition requires a politics based on absolutist wedge-issues, so as to whip up enthusiasm in one or another key faction of the gang.
As a result, his signature initiatives turn out to be counterproductive. When things go all wrong, getting out of the mess becomes preferable. But the coalition is such that basic failed understandings cannot be admitted.
As a result, a blustering coward is the ideal figurehead. He will blame the opposition (e.g. Democrats) for all the things gone wrong. Insofar as they retain a shred of common sense and back down, they can blame him for it, direct attention to his personal failings, his incompetence, cowardice or whatever, and avoid accepting the responsibility, where it belongs, with the reactionary alliance itself.
So B's personal cowardice is functional for the out-of-touch Right.
Bush's cowardice is a way of passing the buck on the unviability of the ideals and initiatives. It's a way of keeping them afloat, at least for a time. For the ruling coalition, his cowardice is a convenient character trait.
Attributing the failures of the Bush Administration to the President's personality or character traits tends to gloss over the basic faults of the coalition itself. He is their genuine expression.