But the official was right. Even though Bush and Cheney are in complete agreement on the policies, the difference in tone between Cheney's blunt speech and Bush's conciliatory one last week couldn't have been more stark. Mary Matalin, a senior adviser to Cheney, brought in an outside public relations consultant, Jim Sims, to help with the plan's rollout. By then, Bush aides were happy to have regained control of the roll out of the energy policy message from Cheney's office and efforts were under way to amp up the conservation message that some felt was missing in the previous weeks. But this is one of those cases where perception is not reality.
Reality is reality.
Democrats are going to overplay the politics. The public White House recalibration itself was by no means a unanimous approach. Some in the administration and outside advisers who have helped with the plan argued that the White House was not being combative enough with liberals who see this as an opportunity to score political points. Next week Energy Secretary Spence Abraham will be hitting the road to try to sell the plan and the president will take it to energy-starved California. And though Cheney led the task force that devised the plan, putting in countless hours of detail work while the President focused on other issues, the product no longer carries his name or title.