I suppose one way to gauge just how serious the Plame scandal is for the Bush White House is how furiously the president distances himself from its principal players. Under normal circumstances, Bush stands behind his close friends, no matter how much trouble they’re in (Rumsfeld, for example, is still running the Pentagon). But when a situation becomes dire — such as when Ken “Kenny Boy” Lay found himself in some trouble — Bush pretends not to know who you are.
For example, as Ryan Lizza noted, Scooter Libby is not only persona non grata at the White House, the Bush gang has decided to effectively treat Libby as “some kind of leper.”
Libby holds the highest title in the White House, assistant to the president, and was of course one of Bush’s — not just Cheney’s — most important aides. McClellan is quick to point out that Bush did not exactly wish Libby a fond farewell. “Scooter Libby submitted his letter of resignation earlier today,” the spokesman explained. “It was delivered to White House Chief of Staff Andy Card. It was–his resignation was accepted. Andy Card informed the President. He–Scooter Libby left the White House a short time after his resignation.” Harriet Miers got to march into the Oval Office Thursday morning and place her withdrawal letter on Bush’s desk. Poor Libby had to go through Card.
In case the point was lost, McClellan responded this way to a question about when Libby last spoke to Cheney: “You can direct those questions to the Vice President’s Office. The President did not see him [Libby] today.” The White House now wants us to believe that the president’s and vice president’s staffs are completely separate entities that just happen to share some office space. And McClellan pointedly noted, “White House staffers should not have any contact with Scooter Libby about any aspect of the investigation.” Apparently, Libby will not be back for the staff Christmas party. “He has left the White House and I do not expect him to return,” said McClellan.
Wow, tough love.
However, it’s not just Libby. The president seems to be creating some distance between himself and nearly everyone involved with the scandal.
Newsweek, for example, reported that even Cheney is on the outs.
[A]t least some administration officials — speaking on background, of course — have begun retroactively to dismiss Cheney’s role. Even if they are rewriting history, the revision is politically significant — and an ominous sign for Cheney in a city where power is the appearance of power.
As an aide now tells it, Cheney’s influence began to wane from the start of the second term and effectively came to an end as the Fitzgerald investigation gained momentum in recent months. “You can say that the influence of the vice president is going to decrease, but it’s hard to decrease from zero,” said a senior official sympathetic to Cheney’s policies. Even on foreign policy, said a senior Bush aide, the veep has been eclipsed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who now has the president’s ear and works effectively with her successor as national-security adviser, Stephen Hadley. Bush has grown more confident, aides say, having jettisoned the Cheney training wheels.
What’s more, White House sources told Time that things have been so bad, Bush has actually “lost some of his confidence in the three people he listens to the most” — a group that includes Karl Rove and Andy Card.
For what it’s worth, I’m a little skeptical of these reports and suspect they’re just part of a White House p.r. strategy. After all, can anyone seriously believe that George W. Bush is capable of making decisions without Cheney, Rove, and Card?
Still, the fact that this seems to be part of the defense is interesting enough. It suggests the White House is genuinely scared.