o much for ''love your enemies, bless them that curse you.'' George W. Bush just curses his enemies.
Bush is the Texas governor and presidential candidate who says his favorite philosopher is Jesus and who claims to be able to squeeze compassion from the stone of conservatism. Now he is throwing stones at a reporter whom he holds in the same regard as the serpent who suckered Adam and Eve into biting the apple. Adam Clymer of The New York Times has angered Bush with reporting such as an April story on health care that began:
''Texas has had one of the nation's worst public health records for decades. More than a quarter of its citizens have no health insurance. Its Mexican border is a hotbed of contagion. The state ranks near the top in the nation in rates of AIDS, diabetes, tuberculosis, and teenage pregnancy and near the bottom in immunizations, mammograms, and access to physicians.
''But since George W. Bush became governor in 1995, he has not made health a priority, his aides acknowledge. He has never made a speech on the subject, his press office says.''
Clymer's story is among the many about Bush's record on health and the environment. In response, Bush has reached for so many fig leaves the trees are bare. With still two months before Election Day, this effort to hide the fact that the candidate has no clothes has clearly taxed Bush.
Instead of working to repair his record, the Lord Bush said unto Clymer, ''Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.'' When Bush saw Clymer at a Labor Day rally in Naperville, Ill., Bush pointed him out to vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney and said, ''There's Adam Clymer, major-league asshole from The New York Times.'' Cheney responded, ''Oh yeah, he is, big time.''
The comments were picked up and broadcast to the crowd. Bush and Cheney said their comments were meant to be a private joke and they did not know the microphones were turned on. You can take that naivete for what it is worth. What was just as fascinating for those who are contemplating a Bush presidency is how Bush responded once he blew it.
The honorable thing would have been to apologize to Clymer, especially since Bush's own aides said public health was not a priority. It might have been nice had he apologized to the crowd, which did not come to hear a candidate vent an expletive. Instead, Bush and Cheney played it as if the remark had no meaning at all.
Cheney said: ''It was a private comment, and I don't plan to say anything about it.'' Bush, asked if he would apologize to Clymer, said: ''I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential candidate made it into the public airwaves.... I regret people heard the comment.''
Everyone makes mistakes, but ... that's it? As Jesse Jackson knows with ''Hymietown,'' once the ''private'' becomes public, you'd better get on your knees quick. Yet Bush and Cheney refused. So self-assured that reporters crawl on their bellies, they did not even bother with damage control. There was not even a lame attempt to say ''if anyone was offended ...'' If you heard Bush correctly, he did not regret the comment at all; only that it was heard.
This makes for an interesting moment for this very holy candidate. This is the man who proclaimed Jesus Day in Texas. This is the man who bragged that we should elect him because ''I don't have enemies to fight. And I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years.'' Yet he is already embittered because reporters are not taking his word as gospel.
Bush is claiming a moral ground higher than Bill Clinton's, swearing to ''uphold the honor and dignity of the office'' and to restore ''discipline and decency.''
He said, ''I believe in a God who calls us, not to judge our neighbors but to love them.'' He said, ''I believe in grace, because I have seen it ... in forgiveness because I have needed it. I will not attack a part of this country because I want to lead the whole of it.''
Bush has said, ''I've got a reason for running. I talk about a larger goal, which is to call upon the best of America.... You cannot lead America to a positive tomorrow with revenge on one's mind. Revenge is so incredibly negative.... I'm going to win because people sense my heart, know my sense of optimism.''
This episode makes it more a question of what is in Bush's heart - whether he has the heart of an optimist or the heart of a Richard Nixon compiling his enemies list. Today it may only be a reporter who is cursed above all cattle. Tomorrow it may be a whole lot of other folks. The Bible that Bush swears by says the truth shall make you free. So far, it has only made him speak with a serpent's tongue.
Derrick Z. Jackson is a Globe columnist.
