New Bush Staff Chief Not a Course Change
Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 18:00 CST
New Bush staff chief not a course change
President Bush's allies in Congress and in the Republican Party across the nation are sure to be disappointed that the White House isn't really changing course with a new chief of staff.
It's not enough of a change - for those worried about Bush's troubled second term - to move Andrew Card out and replace him with longtime aide Josh Bolten.
Bolten, with experience at the Office of Management and Budget, is a shrewd Washington operator. And at age 51 he'll have energy to keep up with one of the world's most demanding jobs.
But Bush's critics among Republicans and Democrats probably are right, that this is more of a modest personnel shift than many of the president's own supporters wished to see.
Many Washington insiders pointed to President Reagan's second term, when he brought in an ultimate Washington insider - former Senate leader Howard Baker - to right a ship reeling in the storms of a difficult second term. With all due respect to Bolten, he's no Howard Baker in terms of prestige.
Bush had to do something. His low approval ratings and the trouble he's had dealing with the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - not to mention the failed response to Hurricane Katrina - had made some personnel sacrifice inevitable.
The Bolten move is just not of the dimensions that will change the conventional Washington wisdom that the administration needs a new lease on life. Of course, second terms for presidents almost always are difficult. Presidential scholar Richard Brookhiser once joked the last successful second term was that of James Monroe - and he left office in 1825.
Card has been credited by members of the Louisiana Recovery Authority for giving valuable advice on funding hurricane recovery efforts. So while we don't know many people covered in glory by the Katrina events, we appreciate that he has served a role in pushing for more aid for the Gulf Coast in our time of need.
Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.
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