Card sought the GOP nomination for governor in 1982 but finished third. An early supporter of George H.W. Bush's campaign for president in 1980, Card ran Massachusetts for Bush, who narrowly won the state's Republican primary over John Anderson. "From then on, it became personal for Andy and the Bushes," says Phil Johnston, a former Democratic state House member who worked with Card on a landmark anti-corruption bill.
Through his link to Bush, Card joined the intergovernmental affairs office of the Reagan White House in 1983. He remained close to Vice President Bush, eventually taking a senior position on his presidential campaign in 1987. He worked closely with Bush's sharp-edged political guru Lee Atwater. "Lee always thought Andy was his guy," says Ed Rogers, a Republican lobbyist and close Atwater associate. "But everyone thinks that Andy is their guy. That's the beauty of him. He has assumed the role of chief therapist in the Bush camp." Rogers also dubs Card "a human Alka-Seltzer" who offsets the acid of clashing egos, ideologies and agendas in a political enterprise.
He was deputy chief of staff in the Bush administration under John Sununu and gained a reputation for his forthright and pleasant manner, especially when performing unpleasant tasks. "We always said that if we ever got fired, we wanted Andy to do it," said Bush press secretary Marlin Fitzwater. (This reputation endures: "I figure when Andy fires me, I'll probably be slapping him on the back laughing on the way out the door," says Dan Bartlett, the current White House communications director.)
Card's signature firing occurred in 1990 when he had to tell his own boss, Sununu, that it was time to leave. There is a vivid scene in Fitzwater's memoir, "Call the Briefing," in which Card, White House counsel Boyden Gray and Bush family friend Dorrance Smith nervously enter Sununu's office after the president concluded that it was time for him to go. Smith and Gray hold back, leaving Card to deliver the news. "This kind of thing always winds up falling to Andy," Fitzwater says.
"Hearing bad news from Andy is like hearing bad news from Dudley Do-right," says Rogers. "You can't shoot the messenger with Andy. And this is a town where the messenger gets shot all the time."
After being appointed Bush One's secretary of transportation, Card was given the dirty work of running the president's outgoing transition team. He spent the rest of the '90s lobbying, first for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, then General Motors.
Card first met George W. Bush in 1979 during his father's first presidential campaign. ("May. Kennebunkport. We were on Ocean Avenue.") When Card was deputy chief of staff, Bush Two would sometimes walk into his office, collapse on the couch and gather intelligence about his father's administration. "I wouldn't call us friends," Card says of that time.
Card was not involved in George W. Bush's primary campaign, not unusual given that few people who worked at a high level for the former president also worked for his son. "There was an aggressive effort to avoid it," says Bush's longtime media adviser, Mark McKinnon. But in the spring of 2000, Bush's team was dissatisfied with the planning for the summer's GOP convention in Philadelphia and needed someone to take over. "It was a difficult situation in that there was an existing structure in place," says Bush political adviser Karl Rove.
The elder Bush suggested to his son that Card's convention performance could be an audition, according to a source familiar with the discussion. If it worked out, and if Bush won the election, Card would be a natural for White House chief of staff. The younger Bush referred to the job as "The Big One."
The Crisper
The story of how Card went from running the 2000 GOP convention to "The Big One" is, frankly, long. At least it is in Card's retelling, which takes 25 minutes.
"This is one of those cupboards you don't open until somebody says, 'Hey, where are those string beans?' " Card says.
Herein, the string beans:
Card tells of discussions he had "that were not very directioned" with Rove, future commerce secretary Don Evans and Bush.
And how, just before he began working on the campaign, Card took his wife to Bermuda after she graduated from divinity school.
