{"id":7034,"date":"2006-04-03T11:23:02","date_gmt":"2006-04-03T15:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7034"},"modified":"2006-04-03T11:23:02","modified_gmt":"2006-04-03T15:23:02","slug":"so-long-to-stonewall-scottie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/so-long-to-stonewall-scottie\/","title":{"rendered":"So long to Stonewall Scottie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CNN is reporting<\/a> that changes among the president’s top staff may include the end of Scott McClellan’s tenure in the briefing room.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“You’re going to have more change than you expect,” one GOP insider said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}