Why Is Anyone Staying with Bush?
by Charles Coughlin
A recent news article reports “White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Joshua Bolten, President Bush announced Tuesday amid growing calls for a White House shakeup and Republican concern about Bush’s tumbling poll ratings.” As Andrew Card leaves the Bush Administration the big question isn’t “Why is Card leaving?” but “Why is anyone staying?” As usual with the Bush regime, a story was floated a few weeks ago talking about how “overworked” Card has been in an attempt to soften the blow of a senior advisor leaving. The truth is that something fantastically wrong has to be going on to separate any of these power-hungry types from a position of influence. Heart conditions which would send anyone else into retirement couldn’t persuade folks like Dick Cheney to step down. Card was at the height of his game as a key player in the Bush regime, but this wasn’t enough to keep him going.
Attempts are being made to blame Card for many of the Bush regime’s recent failures. It seems more likely that Card was a voice of sanity and has been driven out by the insane neocon cabal surrounding George Bush. The last straw for Card may have been the Dubai ports fiasco. Any competent advisor should have seen that train wreck coming, but Bush refused to apply the brakes until after running into the obstacle in the middle of the tracks and causing as much damage as possible. Another factor is that Card is at odds with Karl Rove. Perhaps Card was hoping that the criminal investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame would send Karl Rove to jail. Unfortunately, Scooter Libby became the scapegoat for that affair even though Cheney and Rove were almost certainly involved. Karl Rove was even named by one reporter as a source in the Plame scandal and should be sharing a cell with Scooter Libby, but -as often happens in politics- punishment was imposed on just one individual while an equally guilty party escaped.
Another possible explanation for Card departing at this time is that even worse scandals may be in the process of going public. An article on antiwar.com reported two stories that strongly suggest that the US is employing death squads in Iraq to kill the families of rebels or suspected al Qaeda members. International Law strictly forbids this sort of activity, but Bush and Cheney know they are above the law.
While political scandals are certain to hit any administration, the problem that hounded Andy Card and still plagues surviving Bush staffers is that scandals are the rule, not the exception. From the cronyism that put the blundering Mike Brown in charge of FEMA to the pillaging of federal levee repair funds for the Iraq War to the bizarre Harriet Myers nomination to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to the civil war in Iraq War to the Valerie Plame scandal to the Dubai ports fiasco, there appears to be a never-ending series of scandals and failures. Just as the public is beginning to forget the last scandal, a new one takes its place. Defending George Bush is like being a PR man for Charlie Manson, sooner or later the futility of the job becomes glaringly obvious and the smarter the staffer, the sooner he leaves.