King Karl: Rove's new duties will help fix Bush's place in history.

[truthpusher]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6959814/site/newsweek/

King Karl
It's no big deal, insists the White House. But Rove's new duties will help fix Bush's place in history.



Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Policy man: Rove at last month's inauguration
By Howard Fineman and Michael Isikoff

Newsweek Feb. 21 issue -

(snip)

Now it is—more than ever. For much of Bush's first term, not to mention the 2004 campaign, the administration denied what everyone in the capital knew to be the case: that, on policy, Rove was a man to see. Last week the White House made it official, announcing that The Architect of the 2004 victory—indeed, of Bush's entire political career—would become a deputy chief of staff, while keeping his existing titles of senior adviser and assistant to the president. White House aides were intent on downplaying the importance of the move, even leaking names of obscure functionaries who supposedly had been considered for the job. Andy Card—known to fear the gravitational pull of Rove's close relationship with the president—will remain as the chief of staff, they insisted; a source close to him said that Card will stay at least through 2006. Rove, insiders said, wouldn't want Card's job anyway, at least in its current configuration, which is more paper flow than policy.

But the spin spun back onto itself. Rove has always had a major role in formulating policy, officials now suddenly were eager to concede. A bit too strenuously, they insisted that Rove would be excluded from hard-core matters such as the Pentagon, intelligence and counterterrorism—and that he would not be in the Oval Office when the president gets his ultrasecret morning intel briefing. And yet, officials said publicly, Rove will "coordinate policy within the various councils" of the White House—including national security and homeland security—while he "continues to oversee the strategy to advance" Bush's agenda. As usual in bureaucratic Washington, the real story lay not in the nomenclature but in the real estate: Rove is moving from upstairs to down, just around the corner from the Oval Office. "In a way, the appointment just confirms reality," said GOP consultant Charlie Black. But, in a city in which the biggest secrets are the open ones, "this is still a big deal."

(snip)

Rove was a player on Iraq, too. In the run-up to the war, Rove was a full—and, colleagues say, impressive—participant in the colorfully named WHIG (White House Iraq Group). The panel members shed their cell phones and BlackBerrys to meet in a secure National Security Council conference room, sifting through classified evidence (much of it now discredited) for data that might win public support for Bush's hard line against Saddam Hussein. Rove seemed to come into the room knowing more than his political brief, said a fellow WHIG. "He'd say, 'I've got a feeling' about something, and he was usually right."

Democrats last week were crying foul. As he handed the baton to Dr. Howard Dean, outgoing party chairman Terry McAuliffe declared that Rove's new role proved that "Bush cares more about political positioning than honest policy discussion." But, in a way, the Democrats were missing the point. Rove constructed Bush's career as a marriage of policy and politics, playing down Bush's manor-born bio in favor of "game-changing" ideological agendas designed to bring breakthrough electoral success. It's worked so far.

complete article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6959814/site/newsweek/

[stepnw1f]

1. A Sick Madman

He would look good in a straight jacket.

[Moderator]

2. locking

Current discussion here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x105829