Andy Card may have resigned as WH Chief of Staff today, but according to Insight magazine, he wasn’t the White House staffer Republicans on the Hill are worried about.
An increasing number of House Republican members are urging President Bush to keep Karl Rove out of the driver’s seat in the 2006 congressional campaign.
GOP sources said House members have argued that Mr. Rove, White House deputy chief of staff and powerful Bush political adviser, is hampering what they believe could represent a comeback effort to retain control of Congress. The sources said Mr. Rove has been high-handed and out of touch with the interests of Republican constituents.
“There’s been increasingly greater ego and less substance in this man,” a senior GOP source said. “He’s caused so much needless friction between the president and Congress.”
If accurate, it sounds like Rove’s “Boy Genius” status is limited to the White House, which doesn’t have to worry about running another campaign.
What’s more, nervous congressional Republicans have some ideas about how Bush can improve their chances.
Instead of Mr. Rove’s pro-security agenda, House Republicans have pressed the White House for greater spending allocations to GOP-held congressional districts that face serious Democratic challengers. The sources said constituents have been judging the candidates by their ability to bring government funding and jobs to their districts.
“If we can’t deliver the pork, then we’re out of business,” the senior GOP source said.
That’s the ace up their sleeve? Pork?
On a related note, I feel compelled to add, as I always do, that this is the latest in a series of posts stemming from my fascination with Insight magazine, which is an off-shoot of Sun Myung Moon’s far-right Washington Times.
For those keeping score at home, this is the seventh Insight article in just the past few months that casts the Bush gang in an unflattering light. Two weeks ago, there was an article about Bush effectively delegating his responsibilities. Two weeks before that, it was a piece on Cheney becoming a political liability who will be thrown overboard after the midterm elections. Two weeks before that, it was “the largest crackdown in decades against whistleblowers in government.” The week before, it was an item on Karl Rove threatening to “blacklist” any Republican who goes against the president on warrantless-wiretaps. In January, Insight quoted “administration sources” talking about internal turmoil at the Bush White House. In November, Insight ran an item explaining that Bush has become melancholy and paranoid.
I know I’ve been on this for a while, but this seems like a terrific idea for an expose for anyone with contacts in Moonie circles. We are, after all, talking about the far-right Washington Times’ “sister publication,” which keeps publishing pieces that make Bush look bad.
I’m glad, but I can’t figure it out.