Staff shake up — Card out, Bolten in

March 28, 2006

The political establishment has been clamoring for a major change in the [tag]White House[/tag] staff for weeks. This morning, it got one.

White House chief of staff [tag]Andy Card[/tag] has resigned and will be replaced by budget director [tag]Josh Bolten[/tag], an administration official said Tuesday.

President Bush was expected to announce the shake up during a meeting with reporters with reporters Tuesday morning in the Oval Office of the White House.

The move comes amid a sharp decline in Bush’s approval ratings and calls from Republicans for the president to bring in new aides with fresh ideas and new energy.

Card came to Bush recently and suggested that he should step down from the job that he has held from the first day of Bush’s presidency, said the administration official.

Bush decided during a weekend stay at Camp David, Maryland, to accept Card’s resignation and to name Bolten as his replacement, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to pre-empt the president.

A couple of things. One, Card’s departure is not a shock; his name was always at the top of the list of those who were most likely to leave. He was the longest-serving White House Chief of Staff in a half-century.

Two, the White House has reshuffled he deck — but it hasn’t brought in any new perspectives. Bolten, becoming director of the Office of Management and Budget, was Bush’s deputy chief of staff.

In other words, part of the underlying message Republicans had sent the president about getting rid of Card was bringing in someone who could offer Bush new ideas and a different approach to governing. Bolten is another Bush insider, who’ll likely keep the White House moving in the same direction its been going.

Bolten is another Bush insider, who’ll likely keep the White House moving in the same direction its been going.

If you were someone with stature, from outside the administration, would you want to come aboard this sinking ship od the Bush presidency? Recall the poor treatment Bush has given other outsiders like Paul O’Neil, Richard Clarke or Eric Shinseki. And bear in mind that the only function they want from an outsider is mouthing administration spin.

They promote from within because no one from the outside with a reputation they care about will want to be hired.

  • From what I’ve read, Card was a moderating force (if you can call it that) in the Bush WH who tried to do some decent things like pushing Bush to admit his mistakes, unlike Rove who pushed the same old bullshit of “Being strong means never to admit failure.”

    I suspect that we will see a more blatantly arrogant and more high handed WH as now Rove will probably dominate Bolten and run the show.

  • The Director of OMB. The Bush administration has done such a good job with th ebudget this is a logical choice. According to the OMB website Bolton went to an Ivy League School (Princeton), got his JD from Stanford (Where Condi Rice taught), worked for a Wall Street, and taught at Yale Law (cheerleader in chief’s legacy school). If this guy was any more connected to the Bush group they would need a surgeon to seperate him.

    This is non-news. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

  • I have never felt that Card was the problem in the WH. Untimately, Bush and Rove are the biggest problems in the WH and that likely won’t get fixed until the next presidential election.

  • but think of those smokey, blue-eyed soul vocals he can bring to white house staff music parties alongside condi on piano! i think it’s a brillient appointment that just made the white house a lot more…

    oh… JOSH bolten… uhm…

    never mind.

  • Keep those appointments coming Karl. Another brown noser rises to the top of the bowl. Stuff like this may make my dreams of the Republicans becoming the Whigs of the 21st Century come true!

  • MNP got my point (sarcastically, I assume).

    Bolton has had no effect on Congress in reining in the budget excesses. So he gets a promotion. If he brings any passion from the OMB to his new job, he might actually get Bush to veto an appropriation bill…

    … when hell freezes over.

    So this is another case of “You’re doing a heck of a job, Bolty”.

  • In related news, the captain of the Titanic has appointed a new first mate. No change in course is expected.

  • Bush is now more reliant than ever on Karl as the circle of trust gets smaller. What kind of honesty does a cheater want in those around him? How does a liar really want an honest man in the know? Only an insider of proven loyalty has the essential qualification.. Not to become a potential whistleblower.

  • We’re now at the point where every decision they make is dumber and dumber, worse and worse.

    Unfortunately, this isn’t just watching a gaggle of hopeless droolers demonstrate their moronic stupidity in public – these schmucks will just keep making things worse and worse for the country.

    The only good thing that seems to be coming from it is that just about everyone with a mid-double-digit IQ on up is now getting the picture. While the new NBC poll shows people still giving the Repugs the points on terrorisim and Iraq, I think that’s going to be gone by mid-summer at the latest, and all those indicators will be pointing Democratic. I’ll just hazard a guess that new Chief-of-Morons Bolten will do his duty in continuing to create this situation for us. Never ever let on, my fellow subversives, that he is truly one of us! (Or as Lenin put it, “a useful fool”)

  • Nice timing – buries the lastest story about Bush
    intent upon going to war no matter what. Of course,
    nobody pays attention to these stories, so I doubt
    there’s a connection.

  • This is the top story in the MSM, the press and the
    blogosphere. A minor change in Bush’s staff.

    Meanwhile, yesterday, another bombshell was
    dropped about Bush’s manic push to invade Iraq,
    no matter what. Yawn.

    I don’t get it. Have we all gone mad?

    Is there a clue here somewhere, about why we
    are powerless to rid ourselves of the worst
    president in history?

  • Another GOP member departed the scene: Casper Weinberger, seven year Defense Secty under Reagan (during Iran-Contra, with the biggest increase in defense spending in history) with various offices before that under Ford and Nixon. His diary contained such damaging stuff on the Reagan administration that he was among those “pardoned” by the first Bush.

    I hope his death today, aged 88, will make it possible for his diary to see the light of day (though I’ll be surprised if it does). He was an “old style” Republican and was, at one time anyway, a man of principle. I spent several afternoons and evenings at his home in San Francisco when I was working for Earl Warren type Republicans, and I had a lot of respect, then, for the man. If his diary ever does see the light of day, it could blow the lid off the Republican Party.

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