NYT: Talk of Changes in White House Staff Turns to Its Chief (Card)

[DeepModem Mom]

Talk of Changes in White House Staff Turns to Its Chief
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: December 5, 2005
Washington


There may be 26 holiday parties in 21 days at the White House this month, but the mood in the West Wing is anything but merry. True, President Bush's recent Iraq speeches have put the White House back into comfortable blasts of campaign mode, but a lot of staff members say that they are feeling burned out and beaten down.

So talk has intensified after a miserable year - Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the C.I.A. leak investigation, Iraq - about staff changes and who may be leaving in January. "I hope you know that coming into a new year, some people say, 'I want to move on,' " Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, said in a recent interview.

Mr. Card named no names, and he cast any coming change as part of the normal ebb and flow of presidential personnel. Still, some speculate about Mr. Card in particular and whether he will finally make the move to become Treasury secretary.

For more than a year now, Republicans close to the White House have said that Mr. Card was interested in the job. But the buzz picked up last week after Mr. Card and Dan Bartlett, the president's counselor, were hit by complaints about Treasury Secretary John W. Snow at a retreat of House and Senate Republican leaders on the Chesapeake Bay.

The grousing about Mr. Snow was so loud that even Democratic Congressional aides were aware that the House speaker, Representative J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, had complained to Mr. Card and Mr. Bartlett that the administration needed to be more aggressive in talking about the economy. Mr. Hastert has in any case been angry with Mr. Snow because three times last year the Treasury Department rejected federal loan guarantees for the bankrupt United Airlines, which is based in Illinois, Mr. Hastert's home state....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/politics/05letter.html

[KoKo]

1. Bumiller....Another White House "Stenographer" passing as a reporter.

So gently she mentions Andy Card...and how the "buzz" about Snow is that he isn't a "team player" not going along with Hastert.

:puke: Didn't we all hear that "Dragon Momma" wants Card, Rove and Cheney gone from the White House? I believe "rumor" now more than anything the "Stenographers" write.

[crikkett]

5. who is "dragon momma"? n/t

:shrug:

[dogfacedboy]

6. President Georgie's Mommy--Barbara Bush eom

[Seabiscuit]

7. Please don't make up names like that - it's very distracting.

[dogfacedboy]

10. I didn't make up any names- I just explained who dragon momma is

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. Good grief! Are you serious??

[tanyev]

14. Does Dragon Momma think that her little woogums

is really capable of running this country? Card, Rove, and Cheney are the ones calling all the shots. If they go, then I guess it will be the Four Mommas' turn. Condi, Karen, Babs, and an extra slot for special guest Momma of the week: Harriet, Laura, the nice cleaning lady, etc.

[savemefromdumbya]

16. The 'first mother' like Karen Hughes though?

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

[kskiska]

2. When Paul O'Neill was being interviewed for Sec. of Treasury

Andy was relegated to fetching cheeseburgers for * and O'Neill. Now he's being given O'Neill's job?

[Cocoa]

3. "holiday parties" ?!?!!?!?!?!!

WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!

WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!

WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!

[Seabiscuit]

9. "Christmas" parties?!!111?11???111!!!??????

WAR ON HOLIDAYS!!!

WAR ON HOLIDAYS!!!

WAR ON HOLIDAYS!!!

[VegasWolf]

4. Great! A White House staffer gets burnt out so he is reassigned

as Secretary of the Treasury. You know, the person to guide our pathetic economy. Whoa! Brain's handing out these reward jobs is fine for jobs like Chief Janitor. But, for important functions like FEMA and head spokesman for the economy ought have a little experienced guidance. Just my thought.

[chicagiana]

8. If they want to make a positive change ..

If they really want to make a postive change, they would retire KKKarl Rove. They would lessen the impact of the Plame investigation, AND we would have the peace of mind knowing that this ass-hole no longer has access to classified information.

[lovuian]

11. Its getting dangerous to be a staffer... they go to jail!!!

and Bush doesn't really care if they do!!!
thats what their paid to do!!!

[radfringe]

12. more stay the course attitude

---snip----

Republicans close to the administration noted that not one of the men was a Bush outsider, and that the president, who is still surrounded by the same small circle of aides who came to the White House with him, had no taste for bringing in a Washington "wise man" to inject new blood.

----------

bush is keeping his cadre of cronies - even if staffers/cabinet secretaries leave he'll replace them with his buddies

[DeepModem Mom]

15. If he brought in Gergen, for example, then Gergen would be on to...

how clueless and in-over-his-head he really is. WH "insiders" know already; they're accustomed to it, and okay with it.

[Demeter]

13. Does That Mean Card Is Canning Bush?

In my dreams!

[daleo]

17. Card has ably screwed up for Bush

So, his reward is due - Treasury secretary.