Bartlett Heading Home to the Lone Star State

Dan Bartlett, who as White House counselor was one of President Bush's closest aides, is heading back to Texas after several months of mulling job opportunities, he said last night.

Bartlett is joining Public Strategies, a national strategic communications firm headquartered in Austin. He will rejoin Mark McKinnon, Bush's longtime media adviser and the company's vice chairman.

Bartlett announced in June that he would leave the White House, and he said last night that the pull of returning home was too strong to resist.

Public Strategies "has the best of both worlds. It is a nationally recognized firm in a state and city I love," said Bartlett, a graduate of the University of Texas.

Bartlett was working in Austin in 1993 for a political consulting firm headed by Karl Rove when he first met George W. Bush, then preparing for his first gubernatorial campaign. Their professional relationship strengthened over time and, when Bush was elected president in 2000, Bartlett took on shaping the administration's public image, first as communications director and then as White House counselor.

Since leaving the administration, Bartlett has gone on the public speaking circuit. One such appearance, before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September, prompted media buzz when he assessed weaknesses in most 2008 Republican candidates for president.

Bartlett indicated last night that he will sit out the 2008 elections and will focus on helping grow the business of Public Strategies, where his title will be senior strategist.

"This is where my heart and passion will go to," Bartlett said.

Slow Going on Cabinet Vacancies

The White House can be stealthy and quick with personnel moves. When President Bush decided to get rid of Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary last year, he lined up Robert M. Gates as the replacement the day he went public with the decision.

But in filling out his Cabinet for his final year, the president appears to be stealthy and slow, with acting secretaries running the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs. The VA vacancy is particularly perplexing, given the political troubles facing the White House on that issue and the fact that R. James Nicholson announced his departure more than three months ago.

Veterans groups are sounding restive. "I just don't think that VA is on the radar screen of the White House," said David W. Gorman of the Disabled American Veterans. "They think it is a lower priority in the whole scheme of things."

The groups would probably be happy if Bush gave the post to acting secretary Gordon H. Mansfield, a longtime veterans advocate and highly decorated veteran. But the White House is giving no sign about when or if that will happen.