DNC >> JOSH BOLTEN: MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

[sabra]

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=63047

DNC: New Chief of Staff, More of the Same


WASHINGTON, March 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Democratic National Committee:

Facing increasing disarray in his own party and sagging poll numbers, President Bush announced a desperate move to salvage his presidency with the appointment of Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten to replace Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff today. Bolten, however, is hardly the change that Americans are demanding from the President, representing more of the same failed policies that characterized the first five and a half years of the Bush Administration.

Bolten is the same Bush-Rove-Card insider that stonewalled questions about spending on Katrina, keeping his own Party's members of Congress in the dark as to how the money would be spent. (Roll Call, 9/14/05) Bolten was also in charge of driving the Bush Administration's disastrous Medicare Prescription Drug plan that has created chaos for seniors and forced 20 states to pick up the tab. And Bolten has played a key role in the Bush Administration's ballooning budgets and skyrocketing deficits that continue to undermine the economic security of the American people.

"As the saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Unfortunately for the American people all President Bush did today was make it clear that they should expect nothing more than the same failed policies they have come to know all too well." said DNC communications Director Karen Finney. "Josh Bolten is another Rove-Bush-Cheney insider who represents more of the same, not the fundamental change that the American people are demanding. At the bidding of the White House and with the blessing of Congressional Republicans, Bolten has presided over the irresponsible Bush budgets that have undermined America's economic security, and are increasingly putting America's security in the hands of foreign debtors."

JOSH BOLTEN: MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS

Josh Bolten has long been one of President Bush's most trusted advisors. From stonewalling Congress about Katrina relief and the cost of the Medicare drug benefit to creating a "shadow budget" with costs that will explode in 2009 to concealing the true reasons for the ballooning deficits this Administration has created, Josh Bolten is responsible for this Administration's long series of policy failures. And we should not be surprised that Bolten operates like Bush's most inner circle, with stealth and secrecy.

[Horse with no Name]

1. I'm shocked!! Shocked I tell you...

:eyes:

[Cleetus]

2. fuck up and move up

Fuck up and move up. With the chimp, performance means nothing. Look at the torture architect Gonzo, Look at the war mongering hag Condi, look at the stumbling, bumbling fool Rummy. You can be a complete fuck up, it doesn't matter a bit. What is important is that you are a loyal, trustworthy drone, just like a Borg. Braindead, loyal, and willing to follow any order.

[liberal N proud]

5. That has always been the bu$h regime reward system

Rewards for fuck-ups

[katty]

3. rover licking his chops-now he is totally running the WH

[Emit]

4. More on Josh Bolten

Info from 2003, written after Bush announced Thursday that Josh Bolten would become the next director of the Office of Management and Budget:

He's genetically predisposed to silence. Bolten, 48, is the son of a Seymour Bolten, a CIA agent who worked in covert espionage. Both Josh and his father were cozy with George H.W. Bush. Though Bolten is one of the most powerful policymakers in the world, he has said he likes his own life undercover and prefers not to do interviews. (Link)

He is one of the closed-lips defendants named in the Dick Cheney secret energy task force lawsuit, filed by Judicial Watch (http://www.judicialwatch.org/cases/67/ac2final.htm). The Bush administration refused to hand over documents that relate specifically to Cheney and Bolten, among others. (Link)

Bolten already has experience doling out money, at least to corporate interests. He chaired the "Domestic Consequence Group," a blandly worded euphemism for the quiet economic crisis group in the White House which helped co-ordinate the $15 billion airline bailout in 2001. (Link)

~snip~

According to the New Republic article (August 2001), Bolten is involved in almost every aspect of policy in the White House, and to some extent has superseded Mr. Bush's longtime adviser from Texas, Karl Rove. "The anonymous fourth man in the inner circle of Bush's staff, Bolten is far less well-known than Andy Card, Karl Rove…but inside the White House, few doubt his importance," the magazine's Ryan Lizza writes. "The three spheres of White House policy-making - Margaret La Montagne's Domestic Policy Council, Larry Lindsey's National Economic Council, and Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council -- all report to him. Technically, Bolten is even Karl Rove's immediate superior. Since Bolten is the traffic cop for Bush's briefings, no policy matter comes before the president without his blessing.

- This news release prepared by ProTalion.com in conjunction with citizen researchers at Democratic Underground. It appears online here: http://www.talion.com/052203.html

Lot's more at link:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0305/S00155.htm