Bolten Is Sized Up As He Moves Up
By CBSNews.com's Jennifer Hoar.
White House watchers often consider staff changes to be symptomatic of what is really happening within an administration. So, with Andy Card's departure, after his unusually long tenure of five-and-a-half years as chief of staff, some have wondered: Is there turmoil? Is there a new management strategy? It appears that the answer is "no."
Furthermore, it appears that the selection of Bolten as Card's replacement seems to point to continuity more than disruption on the Bush team.
As Ken Duberstein, chief of staff under President Reagan, points out, Bolten is someone made "in the mold of Andy Card," with his low-key personality, an aptitude for consensus-building and "not a big ego."
"This doesn't change anything really," says Stephen Hess, George Washington University professor of media and public affairs. Card's exit is part of the "normal sort of attrition in all normal presidential administrations." It just happens to come "at a time when there had been speculation," Hess explains.
In recent weeks, after all, Republicans had expressed dissatisfaction with the White House and rumors began percolating that Card would be leaving.
"This is not a shake-up," former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer insists, as Bolten is part of an "existing staff from a president who believes in the keeper dynamic."
The impact of this staffing change on perceptions of President Bush, and consequently his standing in the polls, seems to be negligible. Staff changes are an "inside-Washington issue," Fleischer says, and that "doesn't change polls." Anyway, he adds, most people "don't have any idea of who Andy Card is."
Yet with Bolten's expertise in budget issues and his experience in the business world, specifically five years at the investment firm Goldman Sachs, Duberstein believes the appointment could even send "comforting signs to Wall Street."
The Bolten news was received well among Republicans on Capitol Hill. Mike Buttry, press secretary for Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), noted that Hagel had "high regard for Bolten." Following a Senate conference luncheon, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) praised the Bolten nomination.
"He is someone who understands the president's agenda, understands his approach to government and I think he will fill in without breaking a stride," Martinez said.
Quelling speculation that something might be awry in the White House, Martinez added: "I think that it was just time for Andy to move on."
Card told C-SPAN in October that the hardest part of his job was fighting the temptation to be the president's friend and reminding himself to "stay his staffer." Now that he'll be closer to President Bush in the West Wing, perhaps Bolten will find the same challenge.
Yet for now, Fleischer says, the "open question remains what changes, if any, Josh will make" himself.
By Jennifer Hoar