From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 4/20/06:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/267301_means20.html
White House is crumbling from within
By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON--
White House chief of staff Andrew Card, President Bush's efficient
longtime confidant and right-hand man, voluntarily left the pinnacle
of power on Friday with his head held high, surrounded by bipartisan
applause.
He departed just in time. Immediately things not only turned sour but
went public.
The White House is crumbling internally.
President Bush seems bewildered, no longer in charge.
He wanders around the country talking about health savings accounts
and other small-bore projects that mean little to most people.
Nobody is listening.
After months of presidential bravado about ignoring sagging polls and
public opinion, Card finally provided the opening to force an
acknowledgment that Bush's troubled presidency needs a makeover.
The problems are not of Card's making.
They are the president's own, primarily because of the hash the
administration has made of Iraq.
And fears have escalated with scare stories about secret White House
plans for a possible nuclear attack on Iran's new nuclear facilities.
Shuffling personnel is not the answer; changes in policy are.
But that's the hard part.
There's no indication yet that Bush is prepared to go that far.
Card's replacement, Joshua Bolten, who was head of the Office of
Management and Budget, is not exactly a fresh face, although he
bravely said he wants a "fresh start."
The inner circle did not expand one inch.
It budged, in fact, even less than President Carter's administration
after his mid-term epiphany, during which he suddenly sacked several
Cabinet members.
The public did not notice anything different, except the names.
Carter was not re-elected.
The talk about so-called fresh figures nowadays mostly revolves around
familiar GOP faces, particularly tired old former members of Congress
who are now lobbyists.
What the president calls "the game of musical chairs" does not seem to
include outreach to outsiders who might provide a different
ideological approach.
Replacing John Snow as secretary of treasury is the most likely
Cabinet-level change, but the argument that he is an inadequate
messenger of administration economic policy simply reflects the search
for a vulnerable scapegoat.
The president's persistent push for bigger and bigger tax cuts that go
mostly to the rich at a time of record federal deficits is not
factually defensible by any official with genuine economic
credentials.
But Snow may be tossed overboard, just to show that the Bush political
house is being cleaned, even if that move doesn't make real sense.
What will be really interesting is which partisan dummy is next
willing to sell his or her credentials for the treasury title and the
inevitable ensuing embarrassment.
The basic underlying political problem, however, is the mismanagement
of the Iraq war and its continuing violence.
Thus the military operation is naturally attracting the most scrutiny.
And that means a critical analysis of Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld.
The rebellious retired generals who called recently for Rumsfeld's
resignation have provoked a political firestorm.
Most of them served in Iraq and their complaints about the "casualness
and swagger" with which the administration rushed to war are taken
very seriously.
The White House went into high damage control mode, with the president
vigorously defending Rumsfeld and the secretary himself insisting he
would not quit under pressure.
Bush allies tried the usual diversionary tactics, pointing out the
essential nature of civilian control of the military and carping at
the generals for not speaking publicly while on active duty.
The issue is not the principle of civilian control of the military,
but the way this particular civilian has exercised his control.
And of course the military is obligated to be loyal to the leadership
while in uniform; it is only when they have retired are they free to
speak their minds.
Rumsfeld and the president insisted that field commanders were always
free to speak up if they thought higher troop levels were needed to
quell the Iraqi insurgency.
The mess, you see, is not their fault.
But the retired generals say that is not the case, that dissent has
been stifled and troops were put in unnecessary jeopardy by
misjudgments in Washington.
Senate Democrats are crying for a symbolic vote of confidence in
Rumsfeld.
It is not clear what impact such a vote would have.
But it might get bipartisan support.
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said there is "a real question about his
(Rumsfeld's) capacity to lead" in view of the generals' criticism.
So long as the Iraq war goes badly, Rumsfeld will continue to be a
political target.
The difficulty, however, is that he is ultimately an employee; the man
who holds the ultimate power to wage war cannot be fired.
Alas, voters lost that opportunity in 2004 and must suffer the
consequences through 2008.
________________________________________________________
We gonna tolerate these criminals for another couple of years? We're
staring disaster in the face. We've gotta get 'em outa there.
Harry
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