We know there are rifts inside the Bush Administration, but what about the growing rift between Presidents 41 and 43? Even before the Iraq war, the schism between father and son wasn’t hard to conceal. The former President (via associates like Brent Scowcroft) clearly disapproved of W’s repudiation of traditional conservative internationalism in favor of adventurist neo-con extremism. (Remember Scowcroft’s oped of August 2002 in which he argued that preemptive war against Iraq was an unwarranted and divisive distraction from the fight against global terrorism?)

Has Papa Bush decided it’s time to inflict a little public humiliation on his son for disregarding wise paternal advice? How else to interpret his decision to give the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service to Senator Edward Kennedy–one of his son’s most ferocious critics and the same man who denounced the Iraq invasion as a “fraud” that had been “made up in Texas” for political gain? As The Guardian quipped, “The message could only have been clearer if Bush the elder had presented the award to Saddam Hussein himself.”

According to sources, Senator Kennedy’s speech at the November 7th ceremony, will adroitly praise the father’s internationalism–in pointed contrast to the son’s unilateralism. But the speech I’d love to hear is President Bush’s parental address to his wayward son–laying out what he and his presidential team believe about George W’s neocon extremists.