Not Playing With a New Deck of Cards

Not Playing With a New Deck of Cards

March 28, 2006

This morning President Bush announced the resignation of his chief of staff Andrew Card. He will be replaced by longtime aide and current budget director, Josh Bolten. On the surface the move appears significant, however President Bush’s inner circle just got smaller not wider. Little has changed in the White House: Karl Rove remains his top political advisor and Donald Rumsfeld continues to lead the planning in Iraq. Moreover, Bolten’s history gives little indication that he has the ability to take the administration in a much-needed new direction.

• Replacing Andy Card with Josh Bolten is like rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic. While the shake up is a necessary one, the President has failed to bring in new blood. Josh Bolten came to the White House with President Bush, first serving as a deputy chief of staff before becoming his budget director.
  
  
• A measure of any new chief of staff is their ability to stand up to the likes of Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld; Josh Bolten is not that guy. There are serious challenges awaiting Bolten on his first day: Iraq, a failed healthcare plan, immigration reform, impending elections and a growing division within his own party. Solving these issues will force Bolten to stand up to the very individuals that have caused them.
  
  
• Josh Bolten’s poor management of the federal budget calls into question how he’ll manage the White House. Under Bolton’s guidance, the federal budget deficit has ballooned from $6.592 trillion when he entered the OMB, to the current debt of $8.364 trillion. In addition, Mr. Bolten has yet to recommend any veto on pork legislation that has come across the President’s desk. These are heavy indications that Bush has found his “yes” man.