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<DIV class=timestamp>April 1, 2007</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">Ex-Aide Says He’s Lost Faith in Bush
</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE type=" " version="1.0"></NYT_BYLINE>
<DIV class=byline>By <A title="More Articles by Jim Rutenberg"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/jim_rutenberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per">JIM
RUTENBERG</A></DIV><NYT_TEXT></NYT_TEXT>
<DIV id=articleBody>
<P>AUSTIN, Tex., March 29 — In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of <A
title="More articles about George W. Bush."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_w_bush/index.html?inline=nyt-per">George
W. Bush</A>’s early success at positioning himself as <A
title="More articles about Republican Party"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/r/republican_party/index.html?inline=nyt-org">a
Republican</A> with Democratic appeal. </P>
<P>A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the <A
title="More articles about Bill Clinton."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_clinton/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Bill
Clinton</A> years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then
governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched
parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six
years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was
appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.</P>
<P>Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.</P>
<P>In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq
and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership. </P>
<P>He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense
of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to
build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed
the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for
the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached
governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking
circle of trusted aides.</P>
<P>“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he
said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled
in.”</P>
<P>In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle
to break so publicly with him. </P>
<P>He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his
disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of
duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power. </P>
<P>Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator <A
title="More articles about John Kerry."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/john_kerry/index.html?inline=nyt-per">John
Kerry</A> as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security
during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article
titled “Kerry Was Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and
2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal
from Iraq.</P>
<P>“I’m a big believer that in part what we’re called to do — to me, by God;
other people call it karma — is to restore balance when things didn’t turn out
the way they should have,” Mr. Dowd said. “Just being quiet is not an option
when I was so publicly advocating an election.”</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd’s journey from true believer to critic in some ways tracks the
public arc of Mr. Bush’s political fortunes. But it is also an intensely
personal story of a political operative who at times, by his account, suppressed
his doubts about his professional role but then confronted them as he dealt with
loss and sorrow in his own life.</P>
<P>In the last several years, as he has gradually broken his ties with the Bush
camp, one of Mr. Dowd’s premature twin daughters died, he was divorced, and he
watched his oldest son prepare for deployment to Iraq as an Army intelligence
specialist fluent in Arabic. Mr. Dowd said he had become so disillusioned with
the war that he had considered joining street demonstrations against it, but
that his continued personal affection for the president had kept him from
joining protests whose anti-Bush fervor is so central. </P>
<P>Mr. Dowd, 45, said he hoped in part that by coming forward he would be able
to get a message through to a presidential inner sanctum that he views as
increasingly isolated. But, he said, he holds out no great hope. He acknowledges
that he has not had a conversation with the president.</P>
<P>Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor, said Mr. Dowd’s criticism is
reflective of the national debate over the war. </P>
<P>“It’s an issue that divides people,” Mr. Bartlett said. “Even people that
supported the president aren’t immune from having their own feelings and
emotions.”</P>
<P>He said he disagreed with Mr. Dowd’s description of the president as isolated
and with his position on withdrawal. He said Mr. Dowd, a friend, has “sometimes
expressed these sentiments” in private conversation, though “not in such
detail.”</P>
<P>During the interview with Mr. Dowd on a slightly overcast afternoon in
downtown Austin, he was a far quieter man than the cigar-chomping general that
he was during Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign. </P>
<P>Soft-spoken and somewhat melancholy, he wore jeans, a T-shirt and sandals in
an office devoid of Bush memorabilia save for a campaign coffee mug and a
photograph of the first couple with his oldest son, Daniel. The photograph was
taken one week before the 2004 election, and one day before Daniel was to go to
boot camp.</P>
<P>Over Mexican food at a restaurant that was only feet from the 2000 campaign
headquarters, and later at his office just up the street, Mr. Dowd recounted his
political and personal journey. “It’s amazing,” he said. “In five years, I’ve
only traveled 300 feet, but it feels like I’ve gone around the world, where my
head is.”</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd said he decided to become a Republican in 1999 and joined Mr. Bush
after watching him work closely with Bob Bullock, the Democratic lieutenant
governor of Texas, who was a political client of Mr. Dowd and a mentor to Mr.
Bush.</P>
<P>“It’s almost like you fall in love,” he said. “I was frustrated about
Washington, the inability for people to get stuff done and bridge divides. And
this guy’s personality — he cared about education and taking a different stand
on <A title="More articles about immigration."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">immigration</A>.”</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd established himself as an expert at interpreting polls, giving <A
title="More articles about Karl Rove."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/karl_rove/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Karl
Rove</A>, the president’s closest political adviser, and the rest of the Bush
team guidance as they set out to woo voters, slash opponents and exploit
divisions between Democratic-leaning states and Republican-leaning ones.</P>
<P>In television interviews in 2004, Mr. Dowd said that Mr. Kerry’s campaign was
proposing “a weak defense,” and that the voters “trust this president more than
they trust Senator Kerry on Iraq.”</P>
<P>But he was starting to have his own doubts by then, he said. </P>
<P>He said he thought Mr. Bush handled the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11
attacks well but “missed a real opportunity to call the country to a shared
sense of sacrifice.”</P>
<P>He was dumbfounded when Mr. Bush did not fire Defense Secretary <A
title="More articles about Donald H. Rumsfeld."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/donald_h_rumsfeld/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Donald
H. Rumsfeld</A> after revelations that American soldiers had tortured prisoners
at Abu Ghraib. </P>
<P>Several associates said Mr. Dowd chafed under Mr. Rove’s leadership. Mr. Dowd
said he had not spoken to Mr. Rove in months but would not discuss their
relationship in detail.</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd said, in retrospect, he was in denial.</P>
<P>“When you fall in love like that,” he said, “and then you notice some things
that don’t exactly go the way you thought, what do you do? Like in a
relationship, you say ‘No no, no, it’ll be different.’ ”</P>
<P>He said he clung to the hope that Mr. Bush would get back to his Texas style
of governing if he won. But he saw no change after the 2004 victory.</P>
<P>He describes as further cause for doubt two events in the summer of 2005: the
administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the president’s refusal,
around the same time that he was entertaining the bicyclist <A
title="More articles about Lance Armstrong."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/lance_armstrong/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Lance
Armstrong</A> at his Crawford ranch, to meet with the war protester Cindy
Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq.</P>
<P>“I had finally come to the conclusion that maybe all these things along do
add up,” he said. “That it’s not the same, it’s not the person I thought.” </P>
<P>He said that during his work on the 2006 re-election campaign of Gov. <A
title="More articles about Arnold Schwarzenegger."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/arnold_schwarzenegger/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Arnold
Schwarzenegger</A> of California, which had a bipartisan appeal, he began to
rethink his approach to elections. </P>
<P>“I think we should design campaigns that appeal not to 51 percent of the
people,” he said, “but bring the country together as a whole.”</P>
<P>He said that he still believed campaigns must do what it takes to win, but
that he was never comfortable with the most hard-charging tactics. He is now
calling for “gentleness” in politics. He said that while he tried to keep his
own conduct respectful during political combat, he wanted to “do my part in
fixing fissures that I may have been part of.”</P>
<P>His views against the war began to harden last spring when, in a personal
exercise, he wrote a draft opinion article and found himself agreeing with Mr.
Kerry’s call for withdrawal from Iraq. He acknowledged that the expected
deployment of his son Daniel was an important factor. </P>
<P>He said the president’s announcement last fall that he was re-nominating the
former <A title="More articles about the United Nations."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org">United
Nations</A> ambassador <A title="More articles about John R. Bolton."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/john_r_bolton/index.html?inline=nyt-per">John
R. Bolton</A>, whose confirmation Democrats had already refused, was further
proof to him that Mr. Bush was not seeking consensus with Democrats.</P>
<P>He said he came to believe Mr. Bush’s views were hardening, with the
reinforcement of his inner circle. But, he said, the person “who is ultimately
responsible is the president.” And he gradually ventured out with criticism,
going so far as declaring last month in a short essay in Texas Monthly magazine
that Mr. Bush was losing “his gut-level bond with the American people,” and
breaking more fully in this week’s interview.</P>
<P>“If the American public says they’re done with something, our leaders have to
understand what they want,” Mr. Dowd said. “They’re saying, ‘Get out of Iraq.’
”</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd’s friends from Mr. Bush’s orbit said they understood his need to
speak out. “Everyone is going to reflect on the good and the bad, and everything
in between, in their own way,” said Nicolle Wallace, communications director of
Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign, a post she also held at the White House until last
summer. “And I certainly respect the way he’s doing it — these are his true
thoughts from a deeply personal place.” Ms. Wallace said she continued to have
“enormous gratitude” for her years with Mr. Bush.</P>
<P>Mr. Bartlett, the White House counselor, said he understood, too, though he
said he strongly disagreed with Mr. Dowd’s assessment. “Do we know our critics
will try to use this to their advantage? Yes,” he said. “Is that perfect? No.
But you can respectfully disagree with someone who has been supportive of
you.”</P>
<P>Mr. Dowd does not seem prepared to put his views to work in 2008. The only
candidate who appeals to him, he said, is Senator <A
title="More articles about Barack Obama"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Barack
Obama</A>, Democrat of Illinois, because of what Mr. Dowd called his message of
unity. But, he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t walking around in
Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work.”</P>
<P>He added, “I do feel a calling of trying to re-establish a level of
gentleness in the world.” </P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>