The problem is not just that the Bush White House is run by people who act like thugs, it’s that they’re thuggish about everything, including petty trivia.
Consider the recent lessons for new Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. The new cabinet secretary invited only one non-Bush administration official to join him at Commerce, a gentleman named George Franklin, who was Gutierrez’s vice president of government affairs at Kellogg.
Franklin hardly seemed like a controversial choice to work alongside Gutierrez. Not only is he a close ally of the new secretary, but he’s one of Michigan’s premier business lobbyists, who gets along well with Dems and Republicans. After initially resisting, Franklin ultimately accepted Gutierrez’s invitation to join him in DC.
Unfortunately for both of them, as Al Kamen reported this morning, the Bush gang had different ideas.
Things were all set. Franklin was ready to go, even getting ready to rent a townhouse in this area. But not so fast.
Seems the White House, presumably counselor Karl Rove, had heard from Michigan Republicans who opposed Franklin. Word is it fell to White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. to give Gutierrez the news.
Unclear who opposed him or why, because Franklin’s enemies are said to be few and far between. But it may have to do with his strong support of former Battle Creek mayor and freshman Rep. John J.H. “Joe” Schwarz (R-Mich.) in his congressional race. Schwarz, it turns out, was head of Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign in Michigan, where McCain won the GOP primary, a painfully embarrassing blow to the Bush folks.
So, if this story is right, the Secretary of Commerce, literally just 10 heartbeats from the presidency, can’t pick one member of his own staff because the would-be aide backed a Republican congressional candidate who supported McCain two elections ago.
Welcome to Bush’s Washington, Secretary Gutierrez; now you know why no one else wanted the job you took. Don’t worry, though; if you’re a loyal little soldier, Karl Rove might let you pick out your own necktie. As long as it polls well.