A Radical Political History:
The Bush Years

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Saturday, January 1 2000, 5:50PM

The Bush Years
January 20, 2001
George W. Bush inaugurated as president.
February 15, 2001
Gary Hart and Warren Rudman issue report warning of "mass-casualty" terrorism.
February 21, 2001
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell tells reporters during a trip to Egypt that Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."
March 2001
Bush withdraws the U.S. from the Kyoto global warming treaty.
April 2001
Intelligence report says that Al Qaeda in advanced preparation for a major attack, probably against an American or Israeli target.
May 22, 2001
Bush Administration suspends arsenic-in-drinking-water protections.
June 7, 2001
President Bush signs 11-year $1.35 trillion tax cut into law. The law drops the income tax rate for the highest earners from 39.6 percent to 36 percent, reduces the "marriage penalty" tax on two-income couples and gradually repeals the estate tax.
July 10, 2001
FBI agent Kenneth Williams sends memo warning of Arab students at Arizona flight school.
August 6, 2001
President's Daily Brief (PDB) contains information on bin Laden. CIA Director George Tenet delivers report to Bush titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."
August 16, 2001
INS arrest Zacharias Moussaoui. The arresting agent reports Moussaoui is "the type of person who could fly something into the World Trade Center."
September 10, 2001
Attorney General Ashcroft sends budget to White House with no increase in anti-terror funding.
September 11, 2001
Terrorists hijack four U.S. commercial jets and crash two of them into the World Trade Center towers in New York and a third into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth jet crashes in a field in Pennsylvania. President Bush receives the news in Florida and spends the day flying across the country from military base to military base before returning to Washington.
September 13, 2001
Speaking on Pat Robertson's "700 Club," Rev. Jerry Falwell says: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'" Pat Robertson says, "We have sinned against Almighty God, at the highest level of our government, we've stuck our finger in your eye," said Robertson.
September 13, 2001
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blames Clinton for the terrorist attacks: "The lesson has to be that firing a few Tomahawks, dropping a few bombs is totally inadequate."
September 16, 2001
President Bush says, "No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society."
September 16, 2001
Vice President Cheney is asked about the connection between Saddam Hussein and the September 11 attacks. Cheney says "Saddam Hussein's bottled up." When asked if there was "any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation," Cheney replies "No."
September 30, 2001
The federal government posts a $127 billion surplus for FY 2001, Clinton's last budget.
October 3, 2001
Newt Gingrich says the Clinton White House officials "were so tied into the rule of law in the narrowest American sense, that they had an opportunity for Sudan to give them bin Laden and they couldn't take him."
October 7, 2001
The U.S. launhes war on Afghanistan.
October 26, 2001
President Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) which significantly increased the surveillance and investigative powers of law enforcement agencies in the United States.
December 6, 2001
The U.S. war on Afghanistan ends with the fall of the Taliban and the seizure of Kandahar.
Winter 2002
In a seven-page letter quoted by Ron Suskind in Esquire magazine, John DiIulio, the former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives said: "There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus...What you've got is everything--and I mean everything--being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis who consistently talked and acted as if the height of political sophistication consisted in reducing every issue to its simplest black-and-white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible."
January 29, 2002
In his State of the Union speech, Bush singles out North Korea, Iraq and Iran for criticism: "States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world."
March 25, 2002
Cynthia McKinney calls for investigation into September 11 attacks
May 2002
Despite evidence to the contrary, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice says, "I don't think anyone could have predicted these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center"
June 13, 2002
Bush withdraws U.S. from Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty
August 26, 2002
Vice President Dick Cheney, discussing Iraq, declares: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
September 16, 2002
Iraq agrees to allow weapons inspectors to return to the country
October 7, 2002
President Bush says: "The Iraqi regime possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons."
October 21, 2002
Czech president Vaclav Havel reports there is no evidence to support the charges by President Bush that September 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague just months before the attack.
December 2002
Energy consultant Amy Myers Jaffe issues a report to the government that oil revenues will not be enough to finance Iraq's reconstruction and that the expenses of reconstruction would be huge.
December 20, 2002
House Majority Leader Trent Lott resigns from his leadership post following a controversy over remarks he made at former segregationist Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party. Lott said: "I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."
January 9, 2003
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, discussing Iraq, says: "We know for a fact there are weapons there."
January 28, 2003
In the State of the Union, Bush says "the gravest danger facing America and the world is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons." He also misstates the truth when he utters the now infamous 16 words about Iraq: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
February 5, 2003
Secy. of State Colin Powell tells U.N. that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction
March 17, 2003
Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, discussing Iraq, says: "I'm saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war."
March 17, 2003
President Bush issues a 48 hour ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq to avoid war. Bush says: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." Bush claims: "The United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours."
March 18, 2003
House Speaker Dennis Hastert attacks Tom Daschle. "Those comments may not undermine the President as he leads us into war, and they may not give comfort to our adversaries, but they come mighty close."
March 18, 2003
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says, "Our men and women literally are in a countdown before fighting is initiated, and any remarks that their lives in some way have been compromised by the president of the United States is irresponsible."
March 18, 2003
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tells Senator Daschle in French to "shut your mouth
March 19, 2003
In a speech from the floor of the U.S. Senate at 3:45 p.m., Senator Robert Byrd says: "Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned....We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split. After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe. The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice."
March 19, 2003
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says Daschle and other congressional Democrats are "emboldening Saddam Hussein" in Iraq
March 19, 2003
At 10:15 p.m., President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office and announces the beginning of the Iraq war: "My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger."
March 22, 2003
Gen. Tommy Franks, discussing Iraq, says: "There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them"
March 27, 2003
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz tells the House Appropriations Committee that his "rough recollection" is that Iraqi oil revenues "could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years."
March 27, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rusmfeld briefs a Senate committee about Iraq. "When it comes to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayers we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government."
March 30, 2003
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says: "We know where they [weapons of mass destruction] are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad."
April 2003
President Bush signs a $79 billion wartime budget supplement for Iraq and Afghanistan.
April 2003
Asked about Iraq's oil production, Vice President Cheney says: "With some investment we ought to be able to get production back up on the order of 2.5, 3 million barrels a day, within, hopefully by the end of the year."
April 8, 2003
Iraqi government and military abandon Baghdad
May 1, 2003
Bush declares major conflict over in Iraq
May 4, 2003
Secretary of State Colin Powell says: “I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it just now.”
May 11, 2003
Sakia Gunn, a 15-year-old black lesbian, is stabbed to death in Newark, New Jersey
May 27, 2003
When asked about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says: "They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer."
May 27, 2003
President Bush signs a bill allowing a record $984 billion increase in the amount the federal government can borrow, raising the debt ceiling to a record $7.4 trillion
May 28, 2003
In an interview in Vanity Fair, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz says: “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction [as justification for invading Iraq] because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”
May 28, 2003
President Bush signs into law a $350 billion tax cut which lowers the top marginal rate and reduces capital gains taxes
May 30, 2003
Lt. Gen. James Conway says: “It was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise to me now, that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re simply not there.”
May 31, 2003
The federal deficit reaches a new record $292 billion.
June 16, 2003
Rand Beers, Bush's own counterterrorism expert, tells the Washington Post why he quit his job in the Nationl Security Council. "The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure...As an insider, I saw the things that weren't being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out."
June 23, 2003
Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds Michigan law school affirmative action
June 26, 2003
Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas strikes down sodomy laws
July 1, 2003
President Bush challenges those tempted to attack U.S. forces in Iraq to "bring them on."
July 5, 2003
A remote-controlled blast kills seven Iraqi police recruits at their graduation ceremony in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad.
July 6, 2003
Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, writing in the New York Times, debunks the Bush Administration claim that the Iraqis attempted to purchase uranium from Niger. "Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
July 15, 2003
ABC World News Tonight reports frustration among U.S. troops in Iraq. "What would you say to Donald Rumsfeld if you could speak to him right now, the reporter asked. 'If he was here,' said Pfc. Jason Punyahotra, 'I would ask him why we're still here, why we've been told so many times and it's changed.' In the back of the group, Spc. Clinton Deitz put up his hand. 'If Donald Rumsfeld was here,' he said, 'I'd ask him for his resignation'."
July 24, 2003
Senate and House intelligence committees release 800-page final report of the 9/11 joint inquiry
July 31, 2003
The Cato Institute reports "that national defense is far from being responsible for all of the spending increases." Cato reports defense spending will have risen by about 34 percent since Bush came into office but non-defense discretionary spending jumped by almost 28 percent.
August 4, 2003
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, former Republican Senator Alan Simpson writes that "a federal amendment to define marriage would do nothing to strengthen families -- just the opposite. And it would unnecessarily undermine one of the core principles I have always believed the GOP stood for: federalism."
August 14, 2003
The largest blackout in North American history shuts down power in the northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada.
August 19, 2003
Truck bomb at UN headquarters in Baghdad kills 22 people including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello
August 21, 2003
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, former Republican congressman Bob Barr writes: "Marriage is a quintessential state issue. The Defense of Marriage Act goes as far as is necessary in codifying the federal legal status and parameters of marriage. A constitutional amendment is both unnecessary and needlessly intrusive and punitive."
August 26, 2003
Postwar U.S. military deaths in Iraq outnumber those killed in the war itself.
August 26, 2003
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reports the federal government is heading toward a record $480 billion deficit in 2004 and $1.4 trillion of debt over the next decade. CBO estimates the federal deficit for the fiscal year ending September 30 will be $401 billion, surpassing the previous record of $290.4 billion set in 1992
August 29, 2003
A car bomb kills at least 83 people, including top Shi'ite Muslim leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, at the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf
September 2, 2003
Kalifah.com reports U.S. government has cut off funds to an African AIDS program.
September 4, 2003
Bush acknowledges that his tax cuts are "a part of the deficit. It's about a quarter of the deficit."
September 7, 2003
After months of refusing to allow the UN to play a role in Iraq, Bush reverses course and asks for UN help. Bush also asks Congress for $87 billion to fund the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
September 17, 2003
President Bush finally acknowledges that the Iraqi government had no connection to the September 11 attacks. "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September 11," Bush says.
October 1, 2003
Five months after the end of the Iraq war, no weapons of mass destruction have been found.
October 10, 2003
More than 40 Taliban inmates, including several Taliban commanders and the brother of a former Taliban defense minister, escape from a prison in Kandahar, Afghanistan by digging a 30-foot tunnel, apparently with help from prison officials.
October 15, 2003
Greg Thielmann, a former aide to Colin Powell, tells "60 Minutes II" that Powell and others misled the public about the Iraqi arms threat. "They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show," he says. "They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce."
October 26, 2003
Rockets fired at the heavily guarded Al Rasheed Hotel kill a U.S. colonel and wound 18 others. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, staying in the hotel, is unhurt.
October 27, 2003
On the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, suicide bombers stage four attacks in Baghdad, including bombings outside the offices of the international Red Cross and three police stations that leave about 35 people dead.
November 12, 2003
A truck bomb explodes at Italian military headquarters in southern city of Nasiriyah and kills at least 31 people.