The White House "C" Team

Dick Meyer: Personnel Changes Could Improve President Bush's Cabinet From A "D+" To A "C" Roster

(CBS)  This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

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White House personnel lineups generally lose their all-star quality by the last 18 months of a two-term administration. Not so with the maverick regime of George W. Bush. He began his term with a "D+" roster and, depending on who he selects as attorney general to replace his pal, Fredo, he could end up with a gentleman's "C." Possibly a "C+."

Unfortunately, any improvement in the president's GPA is basically irrelevant to the country at this point. It's too late. President Bush should have studied his history more. It wouldn't have taken more than an hour.

The Bush White House was stocked with cronies. There's nothing wrong with cronies. Some of my best friends are cronies. A president needs cronies. But they shouldn't be working in the White House.

The ultimate Bush crony, Dick Cheney, is an odd case. Cheney's appointment was probably his most widely praised personnel move. When he elevated Cheney from head of his vice presidential search team to his actual nominee, the bulk of the punditry was positive. A bold, gutsy move. Young George needs a gray hair, even a bald one. Don't worry about geography and electoral votes, go for competence.

It didn't work out quite that way.

Cheney was never actually a crony. He was brought on to be the campaign's grown-up and then the administration's grown-up. But the president trusted him like he would a crony. Presidents aren't supposed to trust vice presidents that much, for good reason. Cheney set up a separate power base and even, uniquely in history, a separate bureaucracy. But Mr. Bush thought he was a regular guy so he didn't see the pal's putsch. It didn't matter too much because Bush probably agreed with Cheney most of the time. It was just that Cheney thought of stuff first.

The administration's first chief of staff, Andrew Card, was also just a semi-crony. Mr. Bush's first National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, fits the same mold.

But the rest of the White House staff was Crony City. Karl Rove probably had more official power than any paid political consultant in history. His power was in policy, not just politics. His close aide Ken Mehlman also came over from the campaign.

Karen Hughes was a top-tier crony with no federal experience. She brought her whole communications operation straight over from the campaign. Clay Johnson, a friend from Andover and Yale, ran personnel.

The White House Legal Counsel was Alberto Gonzales. His deputy was Harriet Miers. Enough said.

In that original crowd, only Cheney and Card had any real Washington experience. Bush said that lack of experience was a virtue. It could have been true if he or his staff had what Napoleon Dynamite called "skills."

Mr. Bush, eventually, brought in more grown-ups like Fred Fielding as counsel and Tony Snow as press secretary. Joshua Bolten replaced Andrew Card - a fair swap.

Rove, Gonzales, and Karen Hughes are gone, though Hughes is over at the State Department.

Most of the cabinet changes have been improvements too: Robert Gates for Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Paulson for Paul O'Neill via John Snow, Michael Hayden for George Tenet via Porter Goss, Tom Ridge for Michael Chertoff (post 9/11) and anyone for John Ashcroft via Alberto Gonzales.

All that might bring the grade up to a "C."

Bush's model seems to have been the Clinton administration. Bad call. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both brought in tough, seasoned non-cronies at the top of the White House roster. Not Bill Clinton.

Remember Mack McClarty, the Arkansas natural gas man who was Clinton's Chief of Staff until Leon Panetta was brought in to clean up the mess? How about Bernie Nussbaum, the White House counsel who got the president into so much hot water until Lloyd Cutler bailed him out? And poor Vince Foster?

Dee Dee Myers was the youngest press secretary ever until Mike McCurry came in for cleanup duty. Campaign wonder boys George Stephanopoulos and Rahm Emanuel had big White House jobs before they went off for greater fame and greater fortune. Webb Hubbell was detached to the Justice Department to keep and eye on Janet Reno. Hillary Clinton was in charge of health care policy.

Bill Clinton probably knew as much about the nuts and bolts of government domestic policy as any president. George W. Bush knew a lot less. Both started their administrations in Permanent Campaign mode. Both would have been better served by the teams they had at the end instead of the beginning. They might have been able to govern with popular support.

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[jncc1701]

Boy you guys need to take spelling 101. Not to mention political science 101 - this article is not about communism.

BTW Google makes a handy tool that can be downloaded and allows for posts to be spell-checked before posting.

But I digress,

Bush is no conservative.

A true conservative believes in limited government - period. Not when it suits the christian right wing or big business.
So on that front alone the Bush presidency is a failure and sets back the true conservative movement decades (we will be taxed to death to pay for his mess in Iraq and prescription drug coverage.)

But really - learn to spell.

[jwhitmann]

A TYPICAL LIBERAL

Whut this country needs is a commanist revolushun!! Baa, Baa, Baa

Everbudy knows their is no god !!! Baa, Baa, Baa

WE all know that it takes a villuge!!! Baa, Baa, Baa

And Bush is the devil!!! Baa, Baa, Baa

And we hate everbudy who disugrees with us, because we''re tolerent!!! Baa, Baa, Baa

And everbudy else is intolerent,,, except us!!! Baa, Baa, Baa.

LOL

.

[johnny343sc]

Yet another anti-Bush/anti-conservative story by the Communist Bull**it System.

Anti-American values at their finest!

Just keeping track... ;)

[ubrew12]

I kind of feel like *** Morris is playing Monday Morning Quarterback with this piece.

His bit about Clinton almost sinks his thesis: that cronyism ruined Bush''s chance for good governance. Clinton did much better than Bush, in my opinion, despite the cronyism. Which leaves us to what most currently suspect, that Bush was just a rich-kid heir-apparent to the throne, without the intellectual chops to govern appropriately despite the cronyism.

[incog-nito]

jwhitmann: It''s easy to spot a right wing loser: copying other people''s id and then spamming the board with idiotic posts.

[aaabee-2009]

Yes, they have been a nightmare. It has been ugly being one of the liberals that has been the focus of 6.8 years of conservative hate campaigns, like Rush Limbaugh''s and others. What really hurt was even Christian radio got in on bashing liberals (thank you James Dobson).

So, because I am a liberal, if I and others like me went away, that would solve all the world''s problems?

No, it wouldn''t. It would create another problem, like who would conservatives then blame failures on?

I look at why I am a Democrat, a fee female who can own property without a man''s signature, environmentally aware, socially tolerant, advocate of diplomacy and global peace, a hard worker and self-supporting contributor to society, love of God, love of country. These are noble things I believe in that the conservatives have bashed these past years.

I look at Bush, a rich guy who has given us war and no solutions to American problems, who runs a secretive and non-transparent government, cannot cooperate with investigations or questions of any kind, didn''t help his own citizens when he said he would.

But this country and its people will bounce back. That is where my hope lies at this stage of the Bush game. :)

[citizenusa-2009]

AaaBee - I agree and understand what you are saying. It''s just that the past seven years have really been a nightmare. I pray that the American people have learned to spot incompetence, greed and unmitigated gall in a prospective "leader" and be smart enough to soundly REJECT the message. I''m very ashamed to admit that I am a baby boomer. During the Viet Nam war, we protested against everything that a Bush stood for. Thirty years later, the enemy is elected. OMG

[aaabee-2009]

I understand what you mean, but if the loss of life is the utmost indicator, than drunk driving is a worse offender than Bush.

It was my impression that the majority of the suffering families of these brave dead folks do not see the oil, but the liberation of Iraq. So I wouldn''t present my perspective of the war to them since it would seem as if I was degrading the sacrifice of their loved ones for what is lauded as a good cause in their circles.

Having served myself, I cannot debase the perceptions of others about the war. The president however, is another matter and for all his larger-than-life swaggerings and his King of the World grin, he is naught but a mean small man who had a chance at a greatness few others are given, and blew it.

[citizenusa-2009]

AaaBee - Tell that to the families that have sacrificed their loved ones for the greed of the Bush Administration. Their pain will go on forever.

[aaabee-2009]

Baa, Baa, Baa
SQUEAK, SQUEAK, SQUEAK
Posted by jwhitmann at 03:18 PM : Aug 30, 2007


If this doesn''t sum up the intellectual capacity of Republican debate, nothing can.

[aaabee-2009]

It''''s too late. The damage done by this incompetent group of morons is done.
Posted by tejasdemo at 01:12 PM : Aug 30, 2007

Don''t be discouraged. This world has recovered from some horrific evils in the past time and again.

Take a look at your life and know that you live, not as a peasant or slave under ownerous rule, but as a person endowed with brains and and a strong back to make what you can of yourself. Bush hasn''t taken that away.

That you live free today should tell you that Bush is small potatos, his influence negligible in the scheme of things. (Cheney is even smaller potatos, not even nad-sized, as is anyone who skulks behind the seat of power). This administration is painful only to those of us who have had to sit through 8 long drawn out years of its agony.

These fat power-hungry baby-boomers besmirched all the possible good of their own legecy by doing nothing more than showering themselves with even more airs and fortunes than any human being can possibly know what to do with.

And in the end, the (honest) history books will allott two dusty dry lines to this administrations greatness.

George W. Bush.
Worst President Ever.

:)

[lawyertom1]

One has to admire the author''s foolish optimism.

[seven-pesos]

who is bush''s base?...those redneck, reborn, christian evangelist snakes.

where is bush''s base?... deep down in that dark, evil south.

what is bush''s base?... republican, christian, bible thumping, war making, flag waving, poor, superstitious and uneducated.

well, there you have it, folks!

nothing good comes out of the south.

[getit1776]

jwhitmann--

Your an idiot--you posted this same garbage yesterday.

You can''''t spell, you have nothing intelligent to say--go back to your crayons and coloring book.!

Lots of really good stuff being written, I totally agree, this idiot should never have been "given" the most important job in this country. He has destroyed the credibility of our great country,is responsible for the deaths of thousands and everything else that has been said here--also, is the king of hipocracy!
I have plants with higher IQ''''s.
Posted by liberalme at 01:59 PM : Aug 30, 2007

Using an exclamation point after a period: one demerit

Lacking a subject of a verb: one demerit

Using the possessive for the plural: one demerit

Using the wrong form of You''re in a sentence calling someone an idiot: priceless

[liberalme]

Yes we have been comfortable with the "status-quo" for decades.

Americans have questioned very little until now.

I don''t believe our representatives are aware of just how much information we now have through our own inquiries.

Many people have become more aware of what''s going on in Washington, who has voted for/against what and making this information part of their voting decisions next year.

The Democrats now seen to be in a state of lethargy and Republicans are busy distancing themselves from each other--we''re a train without an engine--and someone better wake up or the King in the Palace will pretend he''s the engine and God only knows where we''ll be.

[truthspeake2]

Actually, the people of this country have just what they deserve and none of this would have worked for the current administration except that they counted on the "Dumbing of America" which we will all ultimately pay for...for years to come!

[citizenusa-2009]

bflong: Excellent and ACCURATE points. Too bad his record wasn''t revealed prior to either of the two elections. Perhaps the outcome would have been different..but then again, we knew a lot after his first disastrous four years, and elected him AGAIN. (I campaigned for Kerry and would do it again in a heartbeat). Unfortunately, none of this helps the families of the soldiers lost due to the presence of an illegal and immoral administration governed by thugs

[liberalme]

jwhitmann--

Your an idiot--you posted this same garbage yesterday.

You can''t spell, you have nothing intelligent to say--go back to your crayons and coloring book.!

Lots of really good stuff being written, I totally agree, this idiot should never have been "given" the most important job in this country. He has destroyed the credibility of our great country,is responsible for the deaths of thousands and everything else that has been said here--also, is the king of hipocracy!
I have plants with higher IQ''s.

[citizenusa-2009]

I applaud CBS for having the courage to "call it as they see it". Thank God we still have freedom of speech! Bush and Company have operated without checks and balances long enough. Keep up the good work CBS because if we ever lost the power of the media, we will have lost everything.

[imprisonbush]

Like some other bloggers, I am baffled by the author''s attempt to equate the Shrub''s disastrous attempt to hijack the federal gov''t for the benefit of himself and his cronies with Clinton''s impressive governance. There is NO comparison. While Clinton certainly had his shortfalls, he will go down as one of the greats or near greats. Even many Republicans have woken up and concluded that Bush will go down in history as probably the worst U.S. President EVER. Of course, the Shrub is too stupid to understand this and will continue to practice the only thing he knows: i.e. deceit, loyal cronyism, incompetence and corruption. But he is one of few people who does not realize the destruction of his credibility and reputation.