officers should be penalized and criminals freed because a judge or a lawyer bungled a search
warrant." Journalists noted that the speech and the setting were typical of the standard campaignevent of 1988, which was often a police group endorsing Bush, courtesy of the CIA Office of
Security. The photo of Bush in the Washington Post is expressive of Bush's anger when making the
speech. [fn 57]
August 21: The Soviet putsch was a trying time for BusGorbachov. A remarkable flare- up by Bush came in response to the opinion expressed by Zviadh, who staked a great deal on his deal with
Gamsakhurdia, the president of the Republic of Georgia, that Gorbachov was part of the conspiracy
behind the coup. Bush, asked for a reaction, was incensed:
Bush: --say to him he needs to get a little work donethat's ridiculous. There's a man who has been also swimming against the tide, it seems to me, a little on the kind of statements he's making. I mean (^)
bit. And I don't want to go overboard on this, but he ought to get with it and understand what's
happening around the world.
Q: Are you saying that--
Bush: To suggest that President Gorbachov would plot to put the people of the Soviet Union
through this kind of trauma and the rest of the world through it just makes absolutely no sense at all.
Now, I haven't heard him say that, so I want to hedge it. You've told me he said it; I haven't heard it.
So, I've got to be very careful I don't react to something that may not be true. I learned that one along time ago.
Here we can see that Bush pulled himself together just enough to leave himself an escape hatch
after he had blown his top.
September 11: In a photo opportunity with Congressmen in which he was asked about his demand
that the Congress postpone a vote on loan guarantees for Israel until January, 1992, so as to permit a
Middle East peace conference to take place in the meantime, Bush showed flareups of rage. Bush's
ploy was widely thought to be part of the preparation of an Israeli "breakaway ally" scenario, in
which Israel, defying the wishes of Washington, would wage war against Jordan, mass-deport thePalestinians, and possibly attack other Arab states. Bush had been accused of anti-semitism by a
minority member of the Israeli cabinet. Was he going to lose a confrontation with the formidable
Zionist lobby? This issue was Bush's obsession of the moment; his reply was testy and full of veiled
threats: "Well, I don't know what you mean by lose on it. What I'm for is the peace process to be
successful, and we're working diligently for that. [...] And so, what I'm suggesting is a simple delayhere, in my view and in the view of all of us in the administration, is the best way to set the proper
tone for these talks to start. And I feel very strongly about it. So, it's not a question of winning or
losing in my view. Strong-willed people look at these matters differently. My view is that a delay is
in the interest, and I'm going to fight for it. And I think the American people will back me on it if
we take the case to the people. But what we're really trying to do is work it out without getting intoa lot of confrontation." Was a confrontation not already taking place? Bush answered, with his rage (^)
quotient rising: "I can take quite a few punches. We're talking about working harmoniously together
in the spirit of cooperation. And I've seen comments from abroad that I didn't particularly
appreciate. But we're the United States of America, and we have a leadership role around the world
that has to be fulfilled. And I'm calling the shots in this question in the way that I think is best. AndI've got some selling to do with certain Members of Congress, and that's understandable to me. So,
we'll see how it comes out. But I'm not approaching this in the spirit of confrontation if that's the
question. You haven't seen any real controversial statements coming out of here up till now."
September 12: At a press conference, the issue of the Israeli loan guarantee postponement was once