Nick Kristof and the battered spouse dynamic

I've talked many times about how the Democratic Party is like an abusive spouse, and those who choose to believe that THIS TIME they're really going to be different are the ones crouched in the corner with the black eye and the leg bruises.

Well, Democratic politicians don't have a patent on being the musclebound guy with the clenched fists and Democratic voters aren't the only ones in the fetal position braced for the next blow.

Nicholas Kristof is one of those too, and his abuser is the current President of the United States. Kristof is still holding out hope that George Bush really can change and that this marriage can be saved:

Mr. Bush's presidency may be caught in a profound malaise, but he can still rehabilitate himself to some degree — if he acts quickly and decisively to reshuffle his administration and approach to governing.

The obvious model for Mr. Bush is Ronald Reagan's presidency when it was in a similar tailspin in 1987. The Iran-contra scandal, the failure of the Bork nomination and the stock market plunge left the Reagan administration "paralyzed" and "dead in the water," pundits wrote. A National Journal headline said, "Reagan Now Viewed as an Irrelevant President."

So Mr. Reagan systematically overhauled his presidency. He reached out to Congressional Democrats and appointed a bipartisan commission of three respected statesmen — John Tower, Ed Muskie and Brent Scowcroft — to investigate Iran-contra. He fired or accepted resignations from two national security aides, John Poindexter and Oliver North. He also fired his chief of staff, Donald Regan, and replaced him with Howard Baker, who was respected by both parties.

Mr. Reagan spoke to the nation, accepting personal responsibility for the scandal. "No excuses," he said. "It was a mistake." Mr. Reagan also moderated his agenda, and his approval rating rose from 40 percent in 1987 to 64 percent when he left office.

The other model Mr. Bush could turn to is ... himself. After Governor Bush suffered a stunning 18-point loss to John McCain in the New Hampshire primary in February 2000, not all the efforts on Mr. Bush's behalf were aboveboard. But Mr. Bush himself did completely retool his campaign. He swiped Mr. McCain's central campaign theme, the need for reform, and appeared with banners declaring, "A Reformer with Results."

Mr. Bush borrowed Mr. McCain's speaking style — more informal and funny. He even tried to pretend that he liked reporters.

But Mr. Bush today is not retooling; he's hunkering down in the bunker. Instead of the Reagan approach of 1987, it's the Nixon approach of 1973. It just increases the national polarization and doesn't help Mr. Bush.

So he should start over. For starters, here are four suggestions:

And then Kristof goes off into the usual litany of Things That Bush Would Never Do, such as replacing Darth Cheney with Condi the Incompetent; replacing Rummy with a conservative Democrat (fat chance), and admitting mistakes and reaching out to Democrats (even fatter chance).

All of Kristof's suggestions presuppose that Bush is something that he's not: a rational man. Yes, Bush is concerned with his legacy, but he is also an arrogant man with a profound sense of entitlement and infallibility. This is an administration the motto of which is "If the president does it, it is by definition the right thing to do." George W. Bush is a lifelong screwup who has never once in his life admitted a mistake. And all of Nick Kristof's hope that this presidency can be salvaged won't change that.

Kate runs, Sawyer cons, and George W. Bush screws up massively and then blames others. A tiger doesn't change his stripes.