"He is an expert on the budget and our economy. He is a man of candor and humor and directness. No person is better prepared for this important position," President Bush said this morning, announcing the resignation of Andrew Card (left) as Chief of Staff and the appointment of "creative policy thinker" OMB Director Joshua B. Bolten (right) as his successor. Oh, to be a fly on the wall . . . or even better, an operative behind the scenes . . . to know what was really behind Andrew Card's resignation. The talking heads were all over the entrails, reading in their own agendas, hopes and despairs.
Freddie the Beetle Barnes, in his Opinion Journal op ed last week, said Andrew Card must go. Now GW's Massachusetts-born Chief of Staff has stepped down, and Tony Snow on Fox News is saying "This has been an amazing White House in that there's been so little turnover . . . I think in resigning he was also trying to send a message to some of his colleagues: Maybe some of you guys ought to think about firing yourselves." Meanwhile Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler thinks it's the same-old same-old: "I doubt you will see much change in the operation of this White House. He has brought in [current Budget Director Josh] Bolten -- Bolten with an e, not Bolton with an o (the one with the white mustache that repels bullets, who speaks truth to impotence at the UN) -- in part because he has a long history with him." Then there's our favorite, from Ankle Biting Pundits [Do you suppose ABP pundit H-bomb's sources know what they're talking about?]. We do so want this one to be true:
My sources tell me that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card's resignation has almost nothing to do with a "staff shakeup," as the AP has reported.
The "staff shakeup" meme plays into the MSM's obsession with the president's "slumping poll numbers" -- which they all too gaily report -- but does not really add up. Card served as a traditional CoS; an administrator, not a policy or political guy, and for all the shortcomings of this White House, staff administration has never really been one of them.
Rather, I have been told by Washington insiders that Card is leaving to play a significant role in the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. This announcement will not be made for several months; perhaps not until after the 2006 election, but many of Card's associates have already been working for Romney behind the scenes.
Bill Krystol on the Brit Hume Show this evening approvingly notes "this could be the beginning of a series of changes," and "we could end up with a much more combative White House." He's crazy about the new Josh who will be moving into Andrew Card's shoes, described by The New Republic's Ryan Lizza -- cited in Slate way back in November of 2001 -- as "'the anonymous fourth man in the inner circle of Bush's staff' (after Andy Card, Karl Rove, and Karen Hughes)."
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