Never Fear, Rummy's Still Here
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| Bye-bye, Andy. |
Card has held the top staff job at the
White House longer than any person since Sherman Adams under President Dwight
D. Eisenhower and had earned enormous respect within the building and around
Washington for his calm professionalism and stamina. But his stewardship of
the Bush team had come under question in recent months after a series of mishaps,
including the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, the bungled
federal response to Hurricane Katrina, the slow public disclosure of Vice President
Cheney's shooting accident and the unexpected Republican revolt over a plan
to turn over management at a half dozen ports to an Arab-owned company. Andrew
Card Resigns as White House Chief of Staff
Bush accepts Card's resignation, but not Rummy's?
George Tenet gets the Medal of Freedom, but Andrew Card gets to
resign because of Harriet Miers?
To top it all, our president has decided to suck up to the press.
Last week's session involved reporters
from several prominent broadcast and print outlets, including ABC News and
The Washington Post. Under the off-the-record ground rules, the journalists
were barred from reporting what was discussed. White House officials said
they also hoped the meetings' mere existence would remain under wraps. That
proved impossible when journalists from The Post who were not participants
in the session, as well as those at other publications, learned of the meetings
from sources outside the paper and began to report on them. … Off-the-record
sessions with presidents are somewhat controversial in journalism circles.
Critics say reporters should not subject themselves to being influenced or
“spun” under ground rules that prevent the comments from being relayed
to the public. But many news organizations say the sessions give reporters
a rare opportunity to observe the president up close and to gain insight into
his thinking and concerns. Off
the Record, Bush Makes Media Inroads
If any reporter believes Bush is going to be candid with him or
her and won't be subjected to spin they just haven't been paying attention at
all.
Of course Bush wanted this to stay quiet, because his is a presidency
that is supposed to give the illusion at all times that he's in control and
that everything is going as planned, even as things spin hopelessly out of control.
Now he's simply asking the press to aid and abet his leadership abdication.
But accepting the resignation of the one capable person in the
White House is an odd way to “shake things up.”
What this actually shows is that Bush is so weak he doesn't even
know who his friends really are and he doesn't have the depth of character to
actually rip the cancer out of his presidency, which would start with the firing
of Donald Rumseld. No single individual has done more harm to this nation than
Rummy, through his continual bungling in Iraq, without an end in sight.
What a weird way to run a White House.
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