Decision ‘08

It’s Time For New Blood

Tom Bevan highlights some suggestions from veteran pollster Charlie Cook:

Bring in someone who is experienced but not a loyal friend to replace Andy Card. Possible names include Ken Duberstein, Dennis Thomas, Will Ball, Howard Baker, Vin Weber, or Bill Cohen.

Get Karen Hughes out of the State Department and back in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff as soon as possible.

Hire someone with experience and gravitas to run the Congressional Laison office and put greater emphasis on managing relationships on the Hill. Cook suggests former Congressional leadership aide Dan Mattoon.

Finally, bring in some new blood on national security. Cook suggests John Lehman (fmr Navy Sec), Richard Armitage, Robert Zoellick, or possibly John Danforth.

Those names are as good as any, I suppose - I’m not even concerned about the who so much as the idea itself. The mere infusion of new faces and ideas would bring some much needed energy to a White House that has grown far too defensive in the face of recent problems.

If, as I expect, an indictment or two is handed down today or tomorrow, one way to snatch a partial victory from defeat would be to engage in a little spring cleaning this fall…

14 Responses to “It’s Time For New Blood”

1 mtl Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 8:22 am
C boyden gray.

Especially after this Meirs thing.

I am supportive of the Pres(and will withhold judgment on her-although the Krauthammer solution is going to play out-so it doesn’t matter), but Gray would not have done, what Rove allowed to be done…
2 mtl Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 8:42 am
One more thing about Gray, he is well versed in the conservative movement on all fronts. Probably can state the argument better than Rove, who is mostly a PR guy…

Bush needs someone who will bring an agenda and has the intellect and crediblity to carry it. The WH has been in bunker mode, without a good front man, for quite sometime. If rove is gone, (he probably isn’t), putting a guy who can make the argument for the Whitehouse with clarity and respectability in as the President’s advisor might be a good move.

Gillespie? Good guy, no gravitas.
Hughes? She can shape the message, but can’t deliver it.

That is the biggest problem Bush faces. Bush is the only one who can carry the message, McClellan is far from the best, but since the press corp bears a striking resemblance to a colony of monkeys throwing feces, the press corp gets what they deserve. Rove likes to work behind the scenes, Cheney is another behind the scenes guy. In the past the senatorial leaders have done an excellent job to help, but Frist has the personality of a heart surgeon…

(One more thing about the press corp-David Gregory. For all the dems who have made the ‘chimp’ remark about Bush…you really need to look at David. I’d pay twenty bucks for a picture of him eating a banana, sorry, I’ve already seen him throwing feces…)

If Bush is serious about getting anything done, Gray is the man. Gray even looks Presidential.

You really have to ask yourself, aside from Bush, who is the most convincing guy who can go out there and hammer away on an issue, without requiring a vein graft every two weeks.
3 mtl Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 8:53 am
Since I’m making the case for Gray…

read:
http://committeeforjustice.org/contents/about/gray.shtml

It pretty much covers expertise in every field the President and the GOP would need…

the fact that he was an Army Sergeant in the Reserves(65-70) after graduating magna cum Laude from Harvard is just salt on his meaty resume.
4 Mark Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 9:40 am
Hey, you’re not getting kickbacks from Gray, are you? Just joking…you’ve convinced me…
5 utron Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
No question, this White House needs to get back on track. Tony Blankley has some excellent policy suggestions in this morning’s Washington Times.

New blood would certainly help, both for implementing new policy initiatives and for cleaning house generally. I can’t speak about Gray–and whatever Gray’s paying you, mtl, it’s not enough–but I certainly think Card needs to go. The Miers nomination and other missteps have plausibly been attributed to Card while Rove has been distracted with Plamegate. Card learned his administrative skills under John Sununu, and the last thing this administration needs is to adopt the style of Bush 41.
6 mtl Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 9:09 pm
Card looks like a used car salesman, a bad used car salesman. Promoting him would be 10 times more grievous than the Meirs nomination.

They need a guy who can wander in to interviews, state the case in a coherent manner, and command the respect of soem pretty vicious interviewers. I love bush, but if he is the best spokesperson we’ve got…get some talent in here quick. I’d take buchanan right now.
7 peter Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 9:39 pm
I think it would be an interesting move for Bush to appoint a Democrat to his cabinet. For example, Clinton had William Cohen as his Secretary of Defense. In my opinion, Cohen did an excellent job and brought a lot to the Cabinet. I think Bush could do the country and himself a favor by reaching across the aisle for some new blood.
8 Mark Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
peter, you know better than that…you have to name names!
9 peter Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 10:02 pm
OK, I’ll bite. Joe Lieberman to replace Rumsfeld. Richard Rubin to replace Snow. Jon Corzine to Secretary of Education. Bill Bradley for the Interior. Al Sharpton to replace Karl Rove (just kidding). Take your pick…
10 Mark Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
No, no, I like the Sharpton thing…my goodness, Bush/Sharpton…the possibilities are endless (btw, I’m a huge Lieberman fan…but put him somewhere else - National Security Advisor, maybe?)…
11 peter Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 10:13 pm
Hey, why not go for broke. Hillary Clinton to run Homeland Security. If nothing else, she is persistent and relentless, and she knows how the government works. Bill Clinton for UN Ambassador. Tom Harkin for Secretary of Agriculture. Eliot Spitzer for Attorney General. Some of these ideas are admittedly a little off the wall and probably deserve more reflection than I’ve given it (I never thought about it before). However, if Bush were willing to go outside his boundaries (fat chance), there might be some different ideas espoused and who knows what would happen…
12 peter Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
I thought Lieberman’s expertise was defense — sort of like Les Aspin, who went from Congress to that job –
13 Mark Says:
October 26th, 2005 at 10:27 pm
Nah, it’s not Lieberman I have a problem with…I just want to keep Rumsfeld. That’s why I say NSA…
14 mtl Says:
October 27th, 2005 at 9:26 am
Rather see lieberman stay in the senate. It might keep the dems a little more reasonable.

Rummy is in til the end. (history will never be able to report how many lives were saved by his innovative strategy in Afghanistan-
if we had followed dem advice and put 100,000 in Afghanistan-we’d be marking 5,000 dead. Warfare is changing, and Rummy is at the head of the charge…)