President Bush wants to have it his way, which means both ways.

One day he says the economy is recovering. The next day, he blames hard times on 9/11, corporate crooks and the "war on terrorism."

Bush likes to have it both ways with wars.

He enjoys playing the brave commander-in-chief who invaded Iraq with the cheeky one-liner, "Let’s roll!" Then he landed in a Navy plane on an aircraft carrier and announced "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

Attacks on U.S. troops continue almost daily. The American death toll is 560-plus and still rising. So the president probably prefers that we forget his aircraft carrier photo-op.

I wonder how the Navy flight-suited President Bush action figure is selling on Ebay? The doll didn’t come with little pilot togs from Vietnam, another war Bush was gung-ho for.

He let others do the fighting. Dubya was into "homeland security," even when he was the right age to go to a foreign war. He used his family name to get in the Texas Air National Guard and get out of Vietnam.

Bush also wants to have it both ways with 9/11. He swore never to exploit the tragedy for political gain. But re-elect-the-president TV commercials show New York City firefighters and fleeting images of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

In addition, Bush wants to have it both ways on his pledge to be "a healer, not a divider." The president didn’t take Rep. Tom Cole, R-Oklahoma, to the woodshed for pandering, "If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election."

Bush doesn’t have a problem with Education Secretary Rod Paige, either. A Texas Republican like his boss, Paige called the National Education Association a "terrorist organization."

Another of the president’s pals is Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. When he defeated Sen. Max Cleland, a Democrat, two years ago, Chambliss ran TV ads that showed pictures of Cleland, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

Never mind that Cleland lost both legs and part of an arm as an army officer in Vietnam. Forget that Chambliss is another Vietnam draft dodger.

Also, Bush wants to have it both ways with off-the-cuff, not-for-publication candidate remarks. The Republicans nearly blew a fuse when John Kerry, thinking his mike was not on, called the GOP attack machine, "the most crooked, lying group I've ever seen."

The Republicans demanded Kerry apologize. Kerry is a Democrat. Being a Republican means you never have to say you’re sorry.

One time in campaign 2000, candidate Bush believed the plug was pulled on his mike, too. He called a New York Times reporter a "major league asshole," but skipped the apology.

The media mostly let Bush have it his way in 2000. Let’s hope more scribes are on to him this time.