Hedging your bet in a game of Texas poker

Robert Novak tells us that President Smirky is playing cards with America's future.

''This is Texas poker, with the president putting everything on Iraq,'' a Republican senator (who thoroughly approves of this policy) told me.

But the impression I get from Novak's column is that he isn't convinced that Bush is playing a strong hand. Some excerpts:

The extraordinary gamble by Bush leads to deepening apprehension by Republican politicians as they wait for the inevitable war. They consider the Democratic Party divided, drifting to the left and devoid of new ideas. Yet, Bush's re-election next year is threatened by two issues: the economy and the war on terrorism. Success on both is tied to war with Iraq.

Few Republicans discuss even in private whether the president had to make this bet. The usually unasked question: Was it really necessary to focus on Saddam's removal from power? With U.S. troops ready to head into harm's way, patriotic politicians do not want to speculate whether this war was avoidable.

[snip...]

The senator who told me the president is playing ''Texas poker'' is delighted to march with Bush in a crusade for democracy in the Arab world, a goal that colleagues well-versed in diplomacy view as unrealistic. That is the heart of George W. Bush's gamble, with his presidency and the course of the nation at stake.

If things go poorly in Iraq or the economy tanks worse than it is now, expect Novak to be the first to say "I told you so". My impression of Novak, when I see him on TV, is that he is not Bush's biggest booster. Novak, who is a very smart man, seems more of an economic conservative than a cultural one, and I think, deep down, that he believes Bush is a simpleton. I would guess that he gets up every morning with his fingers crossed and a tightened sphincter wondering what Bush is going to do that day.