Lonely At The Top

Washington Post: For The President, Confidants Are Lacking

(WASHINGTONPOST.COM)  This story was written by Lois Romano.

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A friend who saw Alberto Gonzales socially over the weekend said the attorney general seemed calm for the first time in months. But in truth, the weight was likely lifted off Gonzales two weeks ago when Karl Rove announced his resignation -- opening the door for one of the last of the Texas loyalists to bolt.

There is a moment in every administration when it starts to look like Enron after the collapse, when the hometown heavies start leaving in droves (either by choice or by cattle prod), replaced by the hired guns with no particular loyalty to the company.

Gonzales's announcement yesterday that he was resigning could very well mark that moment for Bush, a president who has always made it quite clear that he functioned best buffered by friends, loyalists and his own pillow.

Not since Jimmy Carter's arrival from Georgia in 1977 has a president relied so heavily on a tight cluster of personal friends and longtime aides, placing a higher premium on loyalty than Washington experience.

And Gonzales was arguably the most grateful of them all to Bush, who plucked him from a Texas law firm in 1994 to serve as his gubernatorial counsel and brought him to the height of federal power, grooming him along the way in hopes he would be the first Hispanic justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. The president reveled in Gonzales's triumphant narrative from immigrant poverty to Harvard Law School and beyond. Gonzales and his wife, Rebecca, enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the Bushes; they were among those who received coveted invitations to spend weekends at Camp David and view movies at the White House.

"It is really of the utmost significance for a president like this to be losing his inner circle," said Allan J. Lichtman, a history professor and presidential expert at American University. "Bush is a not an intellectually grounded president. . . . He is a personally grounded president. Personal relationships are everything to him -- loyalty and trust are paramount. . . . There's no secure anchor for him anymore."

In the past 18 months, as approval ratings for Bush have plummeted, the president has lost steadfast communications advisers in Dan Bartlett and Scott McClellan, both Lone Star loyalists. Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel and, like him, was seen as a possibility for the Supreme Court, came from Texas and went back there. Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and chief of staff Andrew Card both have left, as have deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch II and White House political director Sara Taylor.

Among the top-tier Texans who followed Bush here, only a handful remain -- Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson and OMB Deputy Director Clay Johnson, Bush's Yale roommate and head of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency. ("We're not going anywhere," assured Johnson's wife, Anne, yesterday. "We're lifers.")

Those closest to the president say that the impact of losing his work comrades and confidants is blunted by Bush's very nature. He is a sentimental man, they say, who makes it his business to stay close to dozens of friends from different eras of his life.

[adian1-2009]

And . . .?

[lars008-2009]

Posted by nyckate at 04:03 PM : Aug 28, 2007

hahahahahahaha

like janet reno.... lol

hahahahahahaha

[lars008-2009]

Posted by fascistusa at 03:58 PM : Aug 28, 2007

hahahahahahaha

WTC
New Three-D study supports federal finding in 9-11 tragedy
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=6683593&nav=0zHF
Study Supports Fed''s Finding On WTC Collapse
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=nation_world&id=5401655
Simulation Finds 9/11 Fireproofing Key
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4905202.html
Debunking The 9/11 Myths - Mar. 2005 Cover Story
PM examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html
Study Backs Up Feds'' Theory of Why World Trade Center Collapsed on Sept. 11
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284816,00.html

[barbaraf4]

"I guess Condi will be the last one to turn off the lights...hope she doesn''''t trip over any of her shoes in the dark!"
Posted by truthspeake2

I expect Condi to leave sometime after the first of the year. She must find some way to rehabilitate her reputation and credibility. She has prostituted herself to her blind ambition. Not to excuse her actions, but it must be very difficult to be Secretary of State in the Bush administration. She is more intelligent and educated than all the rest of them combined, so she recognizes the train wreck this has become.

[hober_mallow]

Bush said in 2000 interview, "... Loyal means that I''m with you when times are good or times are bad."

May I add to that quote: "...No matter how badly U.S. citizens and taxpayers get screwed."

[klifton2-2009]

Bush is an insecure man and needs to be surrounded by familiar faces and sycophants. Is it his upbringing or lack of or is it congenital? One thing, however is troubling! How in God''s name a man like Bush gets voted into office? It is an indictment of the American public''s lack of common sense.The scary of "democracy" is that you can put a village idiot into office and see him or her $screw$ up and everything turn.

[tylenol6]

Bye slimball Gonzo.... The next slimeball to go

should be Cheney....................

[nyckate]

lars008 - I don''t know what garbage you''re posting - this is a discussion on Gonzales and his lack of abilities, Bush''s irresponsibility in appointing a guy not capable of being AG.

[nyckate]

toldyouso21 - EXACTLY - it''s the Bush Club - perhaps I have them too much credit - I likened them to the Class Promp King Kewl Gang - juvenile, spoiled rich kids with no real responsibilities in life and never held accountable for their actions or results of their decisions. The lackeys like Gonzales feel blessed to be allowed into the gang and will forever show exreme loyalty to Bush cause he let them play with him.

[fascistusa]

Lars00ahole:

Works for CBSnews.

ZIONIST Jews own and run CBS"News". We are expecting an attack on Iran any week now. It''s what ISRAEL wants.

ZEITGEISTmovie.com.