“The biggest news out of the first months of the Second Bush Administration was the uncovering of a major terror attack. On March 9, 2001, George W. Bush took to the airwaves for the first time since taking office to announce that the American intelligence community had successfully apprehended more than a dozen individuals with ties to Al Qaeda who were planning on orchestrating the largest ever terror attack on American soil. While the fact that such a plan could develop to a point of operationality did spook some in the intelligence and military communities, most Americans were just glad that it had been shut down before it came to fruition.
“After the terror plot was unraveled, President Bush pushed along with his campaign promise of education reform. On September 21, 2001, a bi-partisan pantheon of heavy-weight lawmakers made their way to Emma E. Booker Elementary School. Senators Ted Kennedy and Judd Gregg, Congressmen John Boehner and Charlie Rangel, and Governors Jane Swift and Gray Davis joined President Bush to announce the Teachers Educating American Children Help Act, or TEACH Act. The bill called for increased standards across school districts, annual school district, school, and teacher quality reports, and expanded school choice opportunities for schools failing to meet the standards. The far right and the far left both assailed the legislation for different reasons, but President Bush was confident he could push it through by playing to the center of both parties.
“A hitch was thrown into President Bush’s education reform plan in January of 2002. While speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell, the war commander hero of the Iraq War, sent the international press corps on fire. In his remarks, he was very combative towards the government of Afghanistan, for allegedly harboring Osama bin Laden, and the United Nations, for allowing such a complex terror plan as the fouled U.S. attack to be hatched across national boundaries. President Bush, who was in a meeting with labor leaders while Powell was speaking, was furious with his Secretary of State when he was briefed on what had been said by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. The President ripped into Powell over the phone, reminding him 'You speak for the nation when you speak, and you speak for me when you speak. We’re not out here firing shots like we’re drunks in some Dallas saloon.' It took President Bush three weeks to clarify Secretary Powell’s remarks and get the education reform train back on track.”
– Blake Gottesman,
Strategery: My Time in the Bush White House, 2017
