Politics and Policy So the Bush administration has shuffled his staff again. His longtime colleague is out as Chief of Staff, his longtime budget director takes his place. Rove loses his “policy” portfolio so he can concentrate on the 2006 Congressional elections. The White House Communications director is gone. It seems a bit like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Of course, this could be an admission that Rove is good at getting Republicans elected to office, but knows nothing about practicing good government. But in practice we know that Rove will be advising Bush on anything he dang well wants to talk about, and Bush will listen. Since this “change” could have been accomplished without any public announcement, we might conclude that it is being made for appearances only – perhaps to assuage Republican candidates that the Bush administration will indeed be able to help them in the 2006 elections, by passing on to them some of the Rove political magic. Or it could be an accurate reflection of the Bush administration's priorities right now. They know that if they don't hold Congress in the November 2006 elections, then their agenda is squashed. If that happens, Bush is really a lame-duck President, a figurehead only. The really interesting part will happen about four years from now, when all the “tell all” books get published. It seems that there is a power play in the Bush administration that has been going on for the past year. It seems to involve a three-way battle involving Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfield. Part of it is the battle to deflect the Valerie Plume investigation toward someone else. Another part is to deflect blame for the problems apparent in the administration’s handling of Iraq and Katrina, and the collateral damage from the lobbying scandal. Right now the underlings are being sacrificed; it will be interesting to see how the primary players fare over the next few months. Posted by RHP6033        Copyright 2006-2007 - Brookridge Associates Inc. All rights reserved.