White House Shake-Up

Photos: Bush & McClellan, Winn McGee/Getty Images; Karl Rove, Time Magazine











Lest y'all think Demon Princess has fallen off her hobbyhorse & can't get up, seeing's that she has made no mention of recent events concerning Karl Rove & Scott McClellan, I'm here to tell ya's it just ain't so.

My reaction, rather, to these purported momentous events is HO-HUM.

A New York Times editorial puts it nicely:

"Things Change, and Stay the Same"

"President Bush wants to show the nation he's shaking things up in his administration, but it is clear that the people who messed everything up will remain in place. The press secretary goes; the political-and-domestic-policy adviser is losing half his portfolio. There's a new White House chief of staff. But the folks at the Defense Department are still on the job, doing ... what they've been doing.

"Metaphors about deck chairs abound.

"It's too soon to say how history will judge this administration, but it does look as if the first thing this president will be remembered for is the disastrous way the war in Iraq was conducted under Donald Rumsfeld, who, of course, isn't going anywhere. If there's a second thing we think history will shake its head over, it's the administration's cavalier disregard for the civil liberties of American citizens and the human rights of American prisoners. Needless to say, nobody's being replaced at the Justice Department.

"The third great disaster of the Bush administration is a fiscal policy that has turned a federal surplus into a series of enormous budget gaps and an economy that depends on loans from China to pay its bills...Mr. Portman, a longtime Bush loyalist, used his nomination acceptance speech to champion all the policies that wrecked things in the first place. More tax cuts will be forthcoming, he vowed, and budget cuts will make things balance out in the end.
...
"The sudden exit of Scott McClellan, the press secretary, would be meaningless under normal circumstances. But in the current context, it really does send an important message. The president is like one of those people who pretend to apologize by saying they're sorry if they were misunderstood. He doesn't believe he's done anything wrong. It's our fault for not appreciating him."

Demon Princess heartily agrees with all the above, of course.

The only question still unresolved in my mind is, why does Bush always surround himself with bulbous-headed guys? Does that look require daily maintenance with an air pump or something?

My loyal readers (smart-assed friends) are hereby invited to jump in & provide plausible answers. Here's your chance to pontificate amusingly.