A former senior aide to President Bush apologized yesterday after being quoted as saying a band of "Mayberry Machiavellis" is running a White House in which politics trumps policy.
The Esquire magazine article -- which extensively quoted John J. DiIulio Jr., the former head of Bush's stalled effort to aid religious charities -- represents a rare criticism by a one-time insider of a Bush White House that has placed a near-total lid on internal dissent.
"John DiIulio agrees that his criticisms were groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples. He sincerely apologizes and is deeply remorseful," DiIulio's office said in a statement.
The statement was distributed by the University of Pennsylvania, where DiIulio works as a professor.
The article, in the January issue of Esquire, quoted DiIulio and unnamed White House officials as saying top Bush aide Karl Rove had assumed unprecedented power at the White House, and that political calculations regularly trumped policy concerns.
"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus," DiIulio was quoted as saying.
"Any suggestion that the White House makes decisions that are not based on sound policy reasons is baseless and groundless," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
