Two major dailies — the LAT and the NYT — both offer an odd, half-glass-full take on Bush’s presidency, now that his scandalous Attorney General has finally agreed to step down. While the obvious angle is to note that Bush is a lame-duck who’s lost all of his loyal friends, the NYT’s Sheryl Gay Stolberg and the LAT’s Maura Reynolds and James Gerstenzang offer a counter-intuitive take: Bush has a “fresh chance” to turn things around.
The back-to-back resignations of Karl Rove and Alberto R. Gonzales, two longtime aides to President Bush who have become lightning rods on Capitol Hill, amount to a political housecleaning for the White House, providing Mr. Bush a fresh chance to make what he can of his remaining months in office. […]
[Bush] can go into the next battle with Congress over the Iraq war — as well as another looming fight over legislation authorizing his domestic wiretapping program — free of the baggage both men carried. If the resignations remove some of the partisan tension between the White House and Capitol Hill, and get Mr. Rove and Mr. Gonzales off the front pages, they could help get Mr. Bush off the defensive as he struggles to salvage something of his second term.
And the LAT on the same issue:
Alberto R. Gonzales’ departure may turn out to be a blessing for President Bush…. “The Texas mafia is leaving,” said Ron Kaufman, a longtime political advisor to the Bush family. “There’s a shift in the philosophies of the appointees you have [around the president]. They are much more creatures of Washington, D.C., and not Austin, Texas.”
But therein may lie an opportunity for Bush. In two weeks, the president has accepted the resignations of the two members of his staff who have drawn the most ire from the Democrats who now control Congress: Gonzales and political advisor Karl Rove. And that may give Bush a chance to salvage his relationship with Capitol Hill and the legacy of his second term.
I have no idea what these people are talking about.
To follow the logic of these arguments, Bush’s presidency can be salvaged now that those scandalous Texans have finally gotten out of the way. I wish that were true, but the idea is premised on the notion that the president’s problems can be blamed almost exclusively on Rove and Gonzales. There’s been a sensible, reasonable president, waiting with baited breath to start governing responsibly, but that dastardly “Texas Mafia” wouldn’t let him.
I think not. Competent or not, Bush is the don of the organized crime family, and there’s simply no reason in the world to believe he’s anxious to turn over a new leaf. Bush doesn’t want to “salvage his relationship with Capitol Hill”; he wants to smear his critics and bury his enemies. He likes the “partisan tension.”
What’s more, it’s an inconvenient tidbit of news, but the Bush White House doesn’t actually have a policy agenda. In this sense, putting some new, less-scandalous people in the deck chairs can’t have much of a practical effect, Even if the president did intend to turn over a new leaf, what’s he going to ask Congress for, more tax cuts for billionaires?
I don’t doubt that a major personnel change can improve the White House dramatically, but we still have to wait 511 days for the one that counts.