So long to Stonewall Scottie?

April 3, 2006

CNN is reporting that changes among the president’s top staff may include the end of Scott McClellan’s tenure in the briefing room.

Presidential press secretary [tag]Scott McClellan[/tag] and Treasury Secretary [tag]John Snow[/tag] could be next in a [tag]shake-up[/tag] in the Bush administration, according to White House and GOP sources.

The possible departure of both men could be among “several senior-level staff” announcements to come within the next couple of weeks, said former White House staff members, GOP strategists and administration officials.

“You’re going to have more change than you expect,” one GOP insider said.

Snow has effectively been this close to being fired every day for a year and a half — in November 2004, one senior administration official said Snow can stay as long as he wants, “provided it is not very long” — so his departure would hardly surprise anyone, but McClellan’s status is a little more interesting.

As White House press secretaries go, McClellan has no real allies anywhere outside the West Wing. The reporters don’t like him (he’s evasive and dishonest); Republicans don’t like him (he’s neither articulate nor persuasive); and Dems don’t like him (he routinely lies and attacks their patriotism).

And yet, despite the criticism — or, just as likely, because of it — [tag]Bush[/tag] seems to appreciate McClellan and has been anxious to keep him around. In fact, the CNN report noted that McClellan’s job may be secure “because of his close relationship with President Bush going back to Texas,” where he was a communications aide in the governor’s office.

That said, [tag]Josh Bolten[/tag] reportedly has free rein to make any changes he sees necessary and CNN’s report is based on considerable scuttlebutt. If Bolten wants a change in the public perceptions of the White House, McClellan may soon announce his desire to spend more time with his family.

The CNN item added that [tag]Dan Bartlett[/tag], counselor to the president, may replace McClellan. If so, it would be very much like the Card-Bolten change, in which an insular White House keeps things within the family by promoting from within, swapping one loyal Bush insider for another. Stay tuned.

As White House press secretaries go, McClellan has no real allies anywhere outside the West Wing. The reporters don’t like him (he’s evasive and dishonest)

Now that’s not entirely true. I’m sure the Fox News and Wall Street Journal correspondent has some warm feelings for him. And there was no doubt a friendly professional relationship between McClellan and journalist/hooker Jeff Gannon/James Guckert. Gannon was always throwing Scottie a lifeline, and Scottie was always good for at least one incendiary quote about the Democrats.

If it’s true McClellan is leaving, I am going to miss him and that sweaty, panic-stricken look he has during the few times the press has actually nailed him.

  • Y’know, while I am no fan of the ever expanding Scott McClellan, there is one thing I can say in his defense. He really provides an every(other) day face to the incompetency of this White House. While W and his minions are clearly incompetent, they are not answering questions of the press on a regular basis. Scottie on the other hand, is usually there saying inane things or trying to inarticulately dodge questions. It will be a shame to see him go and get someone literate in the position who really knows how to dodge the press in an articulate fashion without looking like an idiot. (Not there are any guarantees for this WH, I know).

  • I love it.

    John Snow is supposedly on the chopping block because he didn’t to a good enough job selling Bush’s “great” economy.

    And now, McClellan, whose job is, well… to sell Bush himself. Notice how we’re not talking about the real decision makers here, the ones who CAUSED this mess: Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.

    Nope, they get to stay… it’s the sales guys who are getting the boot, for not doing a better job of selling the crap they were handed. Well, you can’t put lipstick on a pig, fellas!

  • If I remember right the problem with Snow was that they couldn’t find anybody to take his place. The administration cannot even pretend to make a coherent fiscal policy, so Sec Treasury basically lives to serve Karl Rove’s whim. At least with EPA you can find any number of industry lobbyists eager to dismante this and deregulate that to benefit their former and future bosses, so there’s money and job advancement in it. With Treasury you have to find somebody willing to take a substantial pay cut in order to do no favors to anybody except the Republican party and have no say whatsoever when it comes to the policies that you’re asked to implement. If you made a million-plus and commanded an army of lackeys, would you want it?

  • if you can’t sell the product, change the package, change the pitch, change the name, but don’t change, don’t even question the product. that’s the mantra of this white house.

  • Let’s all admit it: Scotty been a “shit-magnet” for the incompetent Bush administration. Replacing Scotty with Bartlett will be like putting a new dust pad on a Swifter dust mop. And with more shit coming down the road, Bartlett’s usefulness in cleaning up messes will be just that much shorter than Scotty’s.

  • In an administration filled with useless wastes of oxygen Scotty had to be the most wasteful.

  • Snow and Scotty may find themselves as textbook examples of what it means to “shoot the messenger.” It is hardly their fault they word for incompetent L.F.B.s.

  • I think McClellan may be the single most inarticulate human being I have ever seen. He is almost painful to watch in his robotic, repetitive stammering. Still, I agree with the commenter who hopes he stays. What a perfect symbolic figure he is for this whole bumbling crew.

  • Gosh darn it all—what am I supposed to do with my Stonewall Scottie voodoo doll…and my Stonewall Scottie dart board…and my Stonewall Scottie toilet paper?

    Changes have to be in the works, because maintaining the status quo isn’t going to help the rapidly-withering chances for the GOP to hold the Hill in the mid-terms. It’s got to be nothing more than a ploy to pull the heat off the GOP Congressional races, and I don’t think simple “staff shake-ups” is going to do the trick this time. Don’t be surprised to see the subtle hints for changing-out Cheney later this year—probably late spring to early summer—to start popping back up. The GOP doesn’t want to surrender its grip on the country; there’s just too much money at stake, and they know they need a “Plan B” to the Bush administration (read: Fiasco) in 2008. Kid george’s coat-tails are a clear political liability these days….

    I see it like this: If the GOP loses just ONE of the two chambers, they’ll never get so much as a greased-pig’s worth of “special interest” legislation passed again. Gone are the tax-cuts, the spending bills, and the faith-base menagerie of critters. They’ll have to bear the brunt of fact-finding committees, probes, hearings, and investigations. There’s also the conservative disaster of that one house being the Senate—which strips away their ability to appoint pro-Bush judges. If they lose BOTH houses, they’re looking at serious problems for BushCo itself—not just a repeat of the censure motion, but maybe the “I” word itself: Impeachment articles being drafted—and even the uber-loyalists can’t possibly imagine success with Cheney (and his lower-than-low approval ratings) in the Oval Office. Card, McClellan, and Snow are just the warm-up act; I’ll wait for the “Main Event….”

  • I’m also waiting for the main event. Scottie is just some poor dumb guy that has to defend the indefensible. What mere mortal could do any better? He has terrible material to work with. He has to tell the world that the moron in the white house is actually a genius. Hard job.

  • I always figured they kept Scottie around because his borderline-Rain Manesque delivery of Republican talking points was so heavy-handed, so ineloquent, so retarded-third-grader-memorizing-his-lines-for-the-class-play-phonetically painful, that he made Dubya look like a relaxed elder statesman by comparison.

    Although I certainly hope that Scottie doesn’t pull a Kurt Cobain and blow his head off within a few weeks after leaving his post, I won’t be surprised when it happens, either.

    IF! I meant IF it happens!

  • The thing I’m going to miss most about Scottie is hearing Mike Molloy play “the one little duck with a feather on his back, he led the others with a quack! quack! quack!” behind his Scottie soundbites. Classic.

  • When Scottie goes why don’t they try to get Katherine Harris to be their
    new shill? She has a proven track record in this area ( remember the work she did in November 2000?) Now that her senatorial campaign is
    tanking it might be just the thing for her to do.

  • This is not new. We used to do this all the time in the tech business.

    Have a shitty product? Fire the sales force. New sales force not helping? Fire the marketing department. Ad nauseum.

    What Shrub is selling, nobody is buying anymore. No amount of “shake-up” can fix that.

    Except, of course, the shake-up of the United States Congress in November, followed by massive impeachment hearings and criminal prosecution of huge chunks of WH staff.

    Bring it on!!

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