A rare change at the top.Byline: The Register-Guard Andrew Card, whose departure as White House chief of staff was announced Tuesday, has not been a political fixer fixer, n the chemicals used in the final step of film processing that remove the unaffected silver halide particles from the developed film. fixer like his deputy Karl Rove  The external links in this article or section may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies. or an ideological hard-liner like Vice President Dick Cheney and
his acolytes.
He's not associated with key elements of the Bush administration's foreign or domestic policy, unlike his successor Joshua Bolten, who helped push the president's tax cuts and the Medicare Medicare, national health insurance program in the United States for persons aged 65 and over and the disabled. It was established in 1965 with passage of the Social Security Amendments and is now run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. prescription drug prescription drug Prescription medication Pharmacology An FDA-approved drug which must, by federal law or regulation, be dispensed only pursuant to a prescription–eg, finished dose form and active ingredients subject to the provisos of the Federal Food, Drug, benefit through Congress. Indeed, Card is most notable for his long tenure in a low-turnover administration. The average tenure for White House chiefs of staff is 2 1/2 years. Card has served just over five, second only to Sherman Adams under President Dwight Eisenhower. John Steelman served six years under President Harry Truman after the position was first created, when its title was assistant to the president. Card has not been as powerful as some previous chiefs of staff, such as James Baker under Ronald Reagan, who functioned almost as a prime minister in charge of day-to-day executive operations while the president focused on broad policy questions. His low profile was not the result of being bypassed by a hands-on president, as happened to the four chiefs of staff who served under Bill Clinton. Instead, power in the Bush administration has been delegated outside the Oval Office - to the vice president, to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and, in the second term, to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Even so, Card was in charge of managing the White House staff and setting the president's schedule. These duties make any chief of staff the gatekeeper In an H.323 IP telephony or video environment, a gatekeeper is a device that manages domains and provides call control. It is used to translate user names into IP addresses, to authenticate users and to manage network resources. to the Oval Office, empowered to decide who gets to meet with the president and who doesn't. Card has a reputation for running a tightly disciplined staff - a claim supported by the low number of tell-all books written by for- mer administration insiders. Of course, there aren't many former insiders. Card, Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld have been in their positions since Bush arrived in Washington. Bush has had no more than two secretaries in any Cabinet de- partment. The stability of the president's team has led to calls for a staff shake-up as a remedy for Bush's sagging sag v. sagged, sag·ging, sags v.intr. 1. To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight. 2. poll numbers. But if there are top officials whose resignations would bring political benefits to Bush, Card would not be among them. Few Americans could name the chief of staff, and fewer still would change their opinion of president because the office has changed hands. Bolten, who has been Bush's budget director since 2003 and was a deputy chief of staff before that, won't alter the administration's politics or policies. Card's decision undoubtedly has more to do with timing than politics. It's a tough job - Card reportedly worked from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. or later. Now is a good time to leave, before the midterm mid·term n. 1. The middle of an academic term or a political term of office. 2. a. An examination given at the middle of a school or college term. b. midterms A series of such examinations. elections mark the beginning of the Bush administration's wind-down period. A trusted successor is ready to step in. If Card chooses to seek elective elective non-urgent; at an elected time, e.g. of surgery. elective adjective Referring to that which is planned or undertaken by choice and without urgency, as in elective surgery, see there noun Graduate education noun office in his native Massachusetts, it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to get started organizing a campaign. Card's resignation is a routine shift in staffing, notable mainly for the rarity of such changes in the current administration. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion