From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
White House chief of staff steps down
The resignation of Andrew Card as White House chief of staff and his replacement by another long-time Bush aide, Joshua Bolten, is an expression both of the deepening crisis in the Bush administration and the inability of the White House to find any way out.
For weeks, the White House has been under pressure from congressional Republican leaders and sections of the media to conduct the kind of shakeup of the top presidential aides that could be portrayed as a rejuvenation or even reorientation of the Bush administration. The shift from Card to Bolten hardly fulfills such demands.
While Card has been, at least nominally, the top staff man in the White House since Bush took office, he was seen more as an administrator than a policymaker, and his replacement by Bolten represents a further contraction of the inner circle, a circling of the wagons, rather than an effort to change course.
Decision making on foreign policy matters remains in the hands of Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser who is now secretary of state. Domestic policy largely runs through Karl Rove, who holds the title of deputy chief of staff but is Bush’s top political adviser and de facto head of the Republican Party. There is little indication of any change in policy in either sphere.
Both Card and Bolten are virtually family retainers, with service in the political campaigns and administration of the senior George H.W. Bush before rising to top positions in the administration of his son.
Card was a Republican state legislator in Massachusetts who worked as state chairman in the older Bush’s abortive 1980 presidential campaign, moving to Washington to work in the Reagan White House and then as secretary of transportation in the Bush administration. Bolten is the son of a CIA official who worked in covert operations. After an elite education at Princeton University and Stanford Law School, he worked on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee, then as general counsel for the US Trade Representative in the first Bush administration and as a White House lobbyist.
What Bolten and Card have most in common is that they derive from what used to be called the “Eastern Establishment” rather than the Christian fundamentalist wing of the Republican Party. They personify the connection between the Bush administration and big business. Card spent the Clinton years as head of the auto industry’s Washington lobby, while Bolten was on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/card-m30.shtml
While Card has been, at least nominally, the top staff man in the White House since Bush took office, he was seen more as an administrator than a policymaker, and his replacement by Bolten represents a further contraction of the inner circle, a circling of the wagons, rather than an effort to change course.
Decision making on foreign policy matters remains in the hands of Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser who is now secretary of state. Domestic policy largely runs through Karl Rove, who holds the title of deputy chief of staff but is Bush’s top political adviser and de facto head of the Republican Party. There is little indication of any change in policy in either sphere.
Both Card and Bolten are virtually family retainers, with service in the political campaigns and administration of the senior George H.W. Bush before rising to top positions in the administration of his son.
Card was a Republican state legislator in Massachusetts who worked as state chairman in the older Bush’s abortive 1980 presidential campaign, moving to Washington to work in the Reagan White House and then as secretary of transportation in the Bush administration. Bolten is the son of a CIA official who worked in covert operations. After an elite education at Princeton University and Stanford Law School, he worked on the staff of the Senate Finance Committee, then as general counsel for the US Trade Representative in the first Bush administration and as a White House lobbyist.
What Bolten and Card have most in common is that they derive from what used to be called the “Eastern Establishment” rather than the Christian fundamentalist wing of the Republican Party. They personify the connection between the Bush administration and big business. Card spent the Clinton years as head of the auto industry’s Washington lobby, while Bolten was on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/card-m30.shtml
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network