The Unknown Candidate: Miracles Don't Happen in Bush Land

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Miracles Don't Happen in Bush Land

Don't be fooled by all the media hullabaloo over upcoming staff changes at the White House. My opinion? It's a major fluff job.

Critics of BushCo have encouraged bringing in a group of better qualified personnel representing less insular points of view. In other words, getting rid of the "yes" men.

Many have recommended a major house cleaning; trade those responsible for the myriad of mistakes, like Rove (Misleader in Chief, involved in outing a covert CIA agent), Rummy (Multiple Iraq war mistakes), Cheney (all of the above), and Chertoff (Katrina Disaster Man), and draft a fresh team of less idiologically entrenched rookies.

Good luck. Miracles don't happen in Bush Land.

What we will most likely see are merely cosmetic and politically motivated changes designed to help pull Bushy-Boy out of his 8th inning slump. Expect nothing more than superficial hotdogging with an eye on luring the digruntled fans back.

If BushCo were a baseball team, there would be a whole lot of empty seats in the stadium this season. The entire managment team has arrogantly alienated their fans, forgetting that without them, there is no game. Once you stop filling up those seats, you're gonna have to do something major--like win the World Series--to win folks back. Or capture a major terrorist named Osama. Or win a disaster of a war in Iraq.

We should be so lucky.

The kind of changes being discussed by Joshua Bolten, Andrew Card's replacement, are minor league. Bolten's focus is on strengthening political ties with Congress, including possibly bringing a new ambassador to Capitol Hill, rumored to be Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.)

According to Peter Baker and Jim VandHei of the Washington Post:

While welcomed by Republicans, Bolten's promotion from director of the Office of Management and Budget did not bring in new blood, as congressional leaders have urged. "The White House has heard a loud and clear message from friends: They need bigger changes than the ones so far," said one GOP strategist.

But even if Bolten does enlist Washington veterans from outside the traditional Bush orbit, Republicans close to the process cautioned against expecting wholesale upheaval. "There's nothing that suggests there's going to be blood on the wall," said a Republican lobbyist with ties to the White House.

Like I said, miracles don't happen in Bush Land.

Photo credit: Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten takes over as President Bush's chief of staff on April 15 and is focused on rebuilding administration ties to Congress. (Pool Photo)