I was anxious to see how the major dailies — who have reporters with better [tag]White House[/tag] sources than I do — covered yesterday’s [tag]staff[/tag]ing changes in the West Wing, and see how insiders described the significance of the “shake-up” for Bush’s presidency. The consensus: not much.
[tag]Karl Rove[/tag], for example, has lost some power over administration policy, but he still enjoys the same access and influence he’s always had.
Although [tag]Rove[/tag] is officially out of the policy arena, many people familiar with White House operations predicted little change in his influence in an administration that melded policy and politics seamlessly. “If Karl needs to talk to the [tag]president[/tag] and get a decision made, he’ll do that, regardless of the title he has,” said Republican anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, a longtime friend of Rove’s.
Indeed, the Wall Street Journal noted that Rove is losing the part of his title that he never really wanted in the first place, and only took to keep the White House from straying too far from the conservative gameplan.
[Rove] will refocus on longer-range planning and more purely political concerns as the 2006 elections loom. But Republican allies said privately that Mr. Rove’s real function never changed that much and isn’t likely to now. They suggested that he took the deputy chief of staff title at the beginning of the second term only to prevent former chief of staff Andrew Card from filling the job with one of his own loyalists, after he rejected giving the job to Mr. Rove’s choice, Jay Lefkowitz.
The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the White House is shuffling [tag]Bush[/tag] loyalists around, but Bush’s presidency isn’t going to change at all. The WaPo summed this up nicely:
[T]he changes made public so far mainly have moved around figures who have been inside the Bush orbit for years, and White House officials made clear yesterday that no major shifts in policy are envisioned. With midterm congressional elections looming, strategists said the main goal was to make public gestures that would restore faith in Bush’s ability to lead.
The staff changes are, for lack of a better phrase, a publicity stunt. By the Bush gang’s own admission, nothing of any substance will [tag]change[/tag] in any way. It’s movement designed to give the appearance of progress. As an NYT editorial put it, “Metaphors about deck chairs abound.”