NYT: Bush Counsel (Miers) May Be Next in White House Shake-Up

[kskiska]

WASHINGTON, April 20 — Joshua B. Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, has raised the possibility of moving Harriet E. Miers from her job as President Bush's counsel as part of a continuing shake-up of the West Wing, an influential Republican with close ties to Mr. Bolten said Thursday.

(snip)

Mr. Bolten's thinking about Ms. Miers, however tentative, provided an insight into the scale of his ambitions for overhauling the White House staff and, should he proceed, could amount to a test of how far he would be able to go in bringing about change.

Ms. Miers, who was once Mr. Bush's personal lawyer, followed him from Texas to the White House. He nominated her to the Supreme Court last year, and brought her back into his inner circle when she withdrew after a brutal period of scrutiny and criticism.

Mr. Bolten is said by a number of Republicans in Washington to feel that Ms. Miers is indecisive, a weak manager and slow in moving vital paperwork through the system. She came to the White House in January 2001 as the staff secretary and then held one of Mr. Bolten's former jobs, deputy chief of staff for policy, before Mr. Bush appointed her as White House counsel in November 2004.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/washington/21bush.html?hp&ex=1145678400&en=536b93753ec1b36d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[chookie]

1. Oh my

How the mediocre have fallen!

[aquart]

6. He's eliminating Bushie's comfort people.

How very interesting.

[Erika]

2. To the broom closet, Harriet

Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Falwell/Robertson don't want a moderate within W's hearing range.

[yourout]

3. Noooooooooo........not crazy Harriet.

[soothsayer]

4. She was, however, exceptionally qualified to be chief justice of

the supreme court

LOL!

[Journeyman]

7. Touché!. . .

exactly my thought on seeing the headline . . .

[cliss]

9. Well, well.....

One day, you're Supreme Court material.

the next day, you're out with yesterday's trash.

Just goes to show you - you're friends with Bush, and you pay and pay and pay and pay....

[Judi Lynn]

20. Yeah! The implications could make one's skin crawl. n/t

[onehandle]

5. Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, or Cheney.

If Bush wants to impress us, get rid of one of the "heavyweights".

[savemefromdumbya]

8. another deck chair rearranged

on the Titanic. she's going down!

[PublicWrath]

10. It might mean bush needs an special attorney to advise on the

Fitz investigation. Maybe moving her out has to do with Plamegate.
Maybe she gave bush bad advice on something.

Is it because she knows something and therefore would not be able to allow bush to give false evidence if he's deposed?

Do we have any attorneys on DU tonight who might be able to speculate on canning Miers in the context of Plamegate?

I'm ready to bark, please direct me to the right tree.

[Divernan]

17. You're right; criminal attys. never ask clients if they're guilty

and they will stop any client who sounds like he's about to privately admit guilt. Because once an attorney KNOWS his/her client is guilty, the atty. cannot put the witness under oath and risk the client perjuring themselves. Why is that? Because should the client lie under oath, then the attorney has an obligation, under the rules of professional licensure, to go to the judge and ask to be removed from the case. The atty., because of the rules of professional confidentiality cannot explicitly say to the judge, my client lied under oath. But the judge knows this is what's going on; the prosecuting/opposing attorney knows this is what's going on. Everyone in the judicial system knows, except the dumb schmucks on the jury, who will not be told.

So it isn't even a matter of whether Harriet will be under investigation for HER actions as WH counsel; it is that she knows what Bush has done, and cannot serve as his atty. (unless she is completely braindead and willing to risk her law license) & allow him to lie under oath. And therefore, as we saw by the Big Oil CEOS before Congress, and Bush/Cheney answering questions from 9/11 Commission and others, the top level GOPers refuse to testify under oath. They are still frightened that they might eventually be revealed to have perjured themselves and end up rooming with Bubba in the Big House, or losing their prime tee times at one of the Club Feds. In olden days, they would have claimed their Fifth Amendment right to not incriminate themselves. But Bush et al have gutted the Constitutional rights of us all so much, that taking the 5th is no longer considered enough protection.

[deadparrot]

11. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

From SCOTUS nominee to out of a job in well under a year.

[HuffleClaw]

12. they are ridding themselves of people under INVESTIGATION

this talk of her being 'indecisive, a weak manager and slow' is a smokescreen. these names are going to be forever referred to as 'FORMER white house officials' once the real tale of them being connected to fitzgerald's coming indictment of ROVE and likely CHENEY.

[Toucano]

13. I don't think Bush will let her go.

She knows too much.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

22. She's such a little suckass,

she's just gonna get a job in the local Hallmark store so that she can get a discount on her "Mr. Pwesident, you are so WONDERFUL!!!!" cards.

[Rechan]

14. Shake up?

Whenever you hear "Shake up" read "Change chairs".

[Blaq Dem]

21. Looks like Harriet will be get a stronger vibrator for her birthday

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. She uses it

to decorate cakes for Fuckface and Lady Fuckface.

[radfringe]

15. letting the air out of bush*'s bubble?

--snip---

Moving Ms. Miers would be a strike at the heart of Mr. Bush's emotional bonds in the White House and would eliminate another Texan from the circle he has kept close to him in Washington. Republicans who talk regularly to senior West Wing advisers say the president has been unhappy and on edge about the staff changes that he nonetheless sees as necessary for revitalizing the West Wing.
......

--snip---

Republicans close to the White House said Mr. Bush was the driver of the changes made so far, including the decision to ask Mr. Rove to focus primarily on the midterm elections.

yeah, bush* is in the "driver'seat" but somebody else's hands are on the wheel

[truthisfreedom]

16. what's next, the maintenance man? the light-bulb changer? c'mon, people!

they're not changing anything. she's a nebbish at this point.

[Supersedeas]

18. What a fall from grace...from Supreme Ct nominee to WH has-been

[Plaid Adder]

19. So...was nominating her for the Supreme Court

really just a way to try to get her out of the WH counsel job without hurting her feelings?

Oy,

The Plaid Adder