Look Who's Next In Line
Well, it's not Rummy, but still the cracks in the White House foundation are widening:
Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.
First she was qualified for the Supreme Court, and now she's not even up to working for this monkey's circus. Sooner or later, though, they'll run short of sacrificial lambs and will be forced to start offering up juicier oblations.
Tags: Harriet Miers
posted by Management at 7:14 PM
2 Comments:
April 21, 2006
Bush Counsel May Be Next in Shake-Up
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON, April 20 — Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.
The Republican, who was granted anonymity to talk openly about sensitive internal White House deliberations, said that Mr. Bolten had floated the idea among confidants, but that it was unclear whether he would follow through or if the move would be acceptable to Mr. Bush, who has a longtime personal bond with Ms. Miers.
"It's a reflection of Josh's thinking," the Republican said. "It's not a prediction that he's going to get it done."
A senior White House official denied that Mr. Bolten was considering such a step. "It's not the case," said the official, who was granted anonymity to get around the administration's policy of not commenting on personnel matters.
On another front, Republicans said that Tony Snow, a commentator for Fox News and a former speechwriter for Mr. Bush's father, was in negotiations for the job of White House press secretary. Mr. Snow would replace Scott McClellan, who announced Wednesday that he was resigning.
Mr. Bolten's thinking about Ms. Miers, however tentative, provided an insight into the scale of his ambitions for overhauling the White House staff and, should he proceed, could amount to a test of how far he would be able to go in bringing about change.
Ms. Miers, who was once Mr. Bush's personal lawyer, followed him from Texas to the White House. He nominated her to the Supreme Court last year, and brought her back into his inner circle when she withdrew after a brutal period of scrutiny and criticism.
Mr. Bolten is said by a number of Republicans in Washington to feel that Ms. Miers is indecisive, a weak manager and slow in moving vital paperwork through the system. She came to the White House in January 2001 as the staff secretary and then held one of Mr. Bolten's former jobs, deputy chief of staff for policy, before Mr. Bush appointed her as White House counsel in November 2004.
It was not clear whether Mr. Bolten was floating a trial balloon to gauge White House reaction to the idea, or whether he might have been intending to send a signal to Ms. Miers that he would like her to think about leaving on her own.
Moving Ms. Miers would be a strike at the heart of Mr. Bush's emotional bonds in the White House and would eliminate another Texan from the circle he has kept close to him in Washington. Republicans who talk regularly to senior West Wing advisers say the president has been unhappy and on edge about the staff changes that he nonetheless sees as necessary for revitalizing the West Wing.
Andrew H. Card Jr. stepped down as chief of staff last Friday. Karl Rove, the president's powerful political adviser who has been at his side since Mr. Bush entered politics, gave up day-to-day control over domestic policy on Wednesday, an announcement made shortly after Mr. McClellan stood next to Mr. Bush on the South Lawn and choked up as he announced his resignation.
Republicans close to the White House said Mr. Bush was the driver of the changes made so far, including the decision to ask Mr. Rove to focus primarily on the midterm elections.
"This is not Josh, this is Bush," said the Republican close to Mr. Bolten. "Bush is very good at using other people as a vehicle to get things done."
Republicans said Mr. Bolten has been focused on finding a new White House press secretary with good contacts in the Washington news media and a deep understanding of how they work.
Mr. Snow is the host of his own radio program and comes from the news operation that flashes from every television in the West Wing.
But before entering into job negotiations with the White House, Mr. Snow publicly joined other conservative critics of the administration.
In a column posted on his Web site that focused on the president's most recent State of the Union address, Mr. Snow in February called Mr. Bush's domestic policy agenda "listless" and portrayed his staff as burned out and unwilling to stand up to him.
"He inspires loyalty and confidence," Mr. Snow wrote in the column, titled "Thud!" that also included high praise for the president. "But over time, even the best burn out — or worse, lose their capacity to tell the boss, 'Sir, that idea stinks.' "
Associates of Mr. Snow, 50, said he has been weighing whether he and his family are up for the rigors of such a demanding job.
Mr. Snow had surgery for colon cancer last year and is awaiting an clearance from doctors before making a deal, according to people with knowledge of his deliberations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to upset private discussions at a sensitive time.
Mr. Snow's deliberations played out on Fox News on Thursday night, when be acknowledged the downside of the job. "You get a massive cut in pay," he said, adding that a press secretary can get treated "like a piñata," and that the job would cut into time with his children.
On the plus side, he said, "You become part of something that's very rare, which is an inner White House circle."
The White House has also been interested in a communications job for Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the United States in Iraq who is now a Republican consultant and Fox News analyst. But Republicans said Mr. Senor was cool to the idea and faced complications because of his wife, Campbell Brown, sometimes fills in as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News" and is the co-host of "Weekend Today."
Bush Approval Rating Hits New Low (33%) in Fox News Poll
By E&P Staff
Published: April 20, 2006 4:10 PMET
NEW YORK While some claim Fox News often looks too kindly on President Bush, its latest poll released today showed that the plunge in his popularity cannot be denied. It found his approval rating at 33%--a startling 3% drop in just two weeks and down 6% since mid-March.
Fox attributed the drop to "sinking support among Republicans."
A year ago his approval rating in the Fox poll stood at 47%.
Fox's Dana Blanton noted, "approval among Republicans is below 70% for the first time of Bush’s presidency. Two-thirds (66%) approve of Bush’s job performance today, down almost 20 percentage points from this time last year."
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s job approval rating also hit a record low this week with 35% of Americans saying they approve.
Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for Fox News on April 18 and April 19.
Post a Comment
<< Home