Rearranging the Deck Chairs?

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:06 AM

I can hardly contain my excitement.

Scottie is out! Tony might be in! Karl curtailed! Rummy still hanging around! More shakeups to come!

White House in . . . where's my favorite word in the whole journalistic lexicon . . . disarray!

When the history of the Bush presidency is written, the world may little note that Josh Bolten decided to shuffle a few staff jobs after taking over. (And here I thought it was POTUS who makes these big decisions. Not for the Delegator-in-Chief.) But for those who are paid to analyze and scrutinize the direction of the White House, it doesn't get much better than this. A new chief of staff, a new press secretary and a revised portfolio -- be still, my heart -- for the president's most powerful strategist.

All that and a Fox News host coming in, too?

Why, enterprising Beltway journalists might just be able to milk this story for weeks on end. By which time we can all go on summer vacation.

So here's the drill: We'll dip into the cosmic-significance pieces from the MSM, followed by my own carefully reported chronicle of McClellan's resignation and then dive into the blogosphere. (Hint: Liberals are near-ecstatic and conservatives are being businesslike.) Karl Rove, loyal employee? "Mr. Rove has been at Mr. Bush's side since Mr. Bush entered politics, and for years his influence has been unquestioned," says the New York Times . "The decision to take away his daily control over the White House's policy-making apparatus is the first time his role has shrunk, and it is a stark reversal from the heady aftermath of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election victory, when Mr. Rove's portfolio was expanded to give him formal control over policy.

"In a telephone interview Wednesday night, Mr. Rove brushed aside suggestions that the change was a diminishment of his role. 'It is something different,' he said. 'I've got a new boss and a different assignment who says I want you to do more of this and less of that.' " Has Bolten told him to start returning press calls, too?

The Los Angeles Times deconstructs the Boy Wonder's role:

"Democrats expressed some pleasure that Rove's role was being cut back, suggesting it was because of his inappropriate mixing of politics and policy and the ongoing scrutiny he faces from the special prosecutor investigating the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Some of the policy areas for which Rove had responsibility -- notably Bush's effort to overhaul the Social Security program -- were considered political flops.

"But a Republican strategist familiar with White House thinking said the shift in Rove's job does not represent a diminution of the strategist's standing. The strategist said the 'principal goal' of Wednesday's personnel change was to free Rove from the responsibility of the routine details of the policy development process, allowing him to concentrate on long and short-term strategy."

Baltimore Sun : "There is little evidence, however, that the shake-up means the president is altering his approach.

Rove remains at the forefront of Bush's team, and officials played down the notion that he had been demoted."

Wall Street Journal: "The shift of Mr. Rove out of his second-term role as deputy chief of staff for policy could help address a separate problem: concern that White House policies too often are perceived as partisan and divisive."

Slate's John Dickerson : "Ari Fleischer infuriated the press corps (and me in particular) with his double talk and the sprig of sanctimony he included in every dish. But Ari was a veteran of years of policy battles on the Hill; he could spar from a posture of strength with the generalists in the White House press corps. McClellan, by contrast, was well-liked during his three years behind the podium but spent much of his time there in a fetal position. He got pounded day after day because the president didn't allow him to do much more than repeat the talking points. He was not just robotic but rock 'em sock 'em robotic. . . .

"Bush and his top appointees continue to see the press as adversaries rather than fair-minded umpires or legitimate critics."

Now for my daily dispatch:

He was painful to watch at times, gamely repeating the same stock phrases under a barrage of hostile media fire, grasping for new ways to deliver the same non-answers.

Two days after deflecting questions about his own future by stiffly insisting that "I never speculate about personnel matters," Scott McClellan resigned yesterday as White House press secretary amid warm words from President Bush but less than flattering reviews from the Fourth Estate The administration kept McClellan "on a short string," said ABC's Sam Donaldson, a longtime White House correspondent, "and it was reflected in his inability to tame the press corps and keep them in bounds. Scott didn't have that ability. He was probably ill-cast to be a press secretary."

Michael Wolff, who recently profiled McClellan for Vanity Fair, said the spokesman's appointment showed "a certain amount of contempt for the press on the part of the White House. . . . It was a comedy, a farce, actually. He could not do the job, bottom line. He came out every day and he couldn't talk through a sentence."

But former colleagues of McClellan, an affable Texan who has worked for Bush since he was governor, say he acquitted himself well in what has become an increasingly difficult and contentious job.

"There's so much more incoming to the briefing room and a more antagonistic relationship between the White House and the media," said former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke. "I think he did as good or a better job as anyone could have done. I'm sure it was frustrating for him, but he seldom let it show."

Ari Fleischer, who was McClellan's boss when Fleischer held the spokesman's job, said his successor enjoyed "the trust and confidence of the president" and "was flawless in his performance, especially when you read the transcripts." But asked about McClellan's apparent discomfort at the podium, Fleischer said: "Whether or not a press secretary thrives in the back-and-forth, pugilistic environment of the television age is always going to be an issue."

McClellan's tenure coincided with a rough reelection campaign and the lowest approval ratings of Bush's term in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Harriet Miers nomination and the continued carnage in Iraq. While Fleischer said McClellan would have preferred to stay on until year's end, his departure was engineered during a shake-up ordered by the new chief of staff, Josh Bolten. "I didn't need much encouragement to make this decision, even though you all kept tempting me," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One.

In a choreographed show of support, the president appeared with McClellan on the South Lawn and said that "he handled his assignment with class, integrity."

"I have given it my all, sir," said McClellan, who plans to stay another two to three weeks.

Senior administration officials, who declined to be named while discussing personnel matters, said two people affiliated with Fox News are being considered as replacements. One is Fox radio host Tony Snow, a former speechwriter for the first President Bush who went on to anchor "Fox News Sunday." Snow, who survived a bout with colon cancer last year, told listeners that it is "an honor to be considered" but that anyone in his position would have to weigh family, finances and personal health.

Dan Senor, a Fox News contributor and former spokesman for the U.S. civilian authority in Iraq, is also being considered. Senor married NBC anchor and correspondent Campbell Brown earlier this month.

Despite published speculation, Clarke said yesterday she has not been approached about the job.

Some past presidential spokesmen -- Jody Powell, Marlin Fitzwater and Mike McCurry among them -- have used wit and whispers to find ways to be helpful to reporters even while furthering the boss's goals. But McClellan did not wink, nod or freelance, sticking closely to the day's script.

"This president was interested in diminishing the role of the press secretary," said David Gregory, NBC's chief White House correspondent. "Our collective frustration with him and Ari was with the fact that you just couldn't get answers out of this group. . . . Scott had the advantage of being well regarded and trusted by the inner circle. But he was just as cautious as anybody else about going further than the president wanted him to go from the podium, and that limited the White House's ability to drive a story."

But White House communications director Nicolle Wallace, who is expected to leave to join her husband in New York, praised McClellan's performance, saying: "The measure is not your ability to rein in the hotblooded passions of the room. The measure is how you handle yourself and your ability to keep your cool." She said that seven years in Bush's service, including two campaigns, would wear anyone down.

A new communications team is often brought in during politically difficult times. Larry Speakes resigned as Ronald Reagan's spokesman soon after the Iran-contra scandal erupted. Clinton replaced George Stephanopoulos at the podium with Dee Dee Myers after a stumbling start to his first term, and replaced Myers with McCurry after the Democrats lost both houses of Congress.

The White House briefing room has long been the scene of heated battles, which have grown louder and more theatrical since the advent of televised briefings in 1995. Republican strategists say the proliferation of media outlets and a more partisan political climate have put White House spokesmen under a constant state of siege.

"The press creates an environment where it's going to be very hard for any press secretary to last long," Fleischer said.

"The White House press secretary says black, the press corps says white," Clarke said. "It's almost become a reflex."

Joe Lockhart, who was press secretary during Bill Clinton's impeachment, said the Bush administration bears much of the blame for the hostile tone. He said reporters can be friendly or antagonistic, depending on how a president is faring.

"From the president and vice president on down, the view is that cooperating with the press is not in the administration's interest, and it makes Scott's job harder, as it made Ari's job harder," Lockhart said.

As Bush's political fortunes waned in recent months, McClellan adopted a more combative stance. During an off-camera briefing about Vice President Cheney's hunting accident, he chided NBC's Gregory for the tone of his questioning, noting that "the cameras aren't on right now," prompting an outburst for which Gregory later apologized.

At another briefing, McClellan told Hearst columnist Helen Thomas: "I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism."

Perhaps McClellan's most difficult briefing came on Oct. 31, the day after then-White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted in the Valerie Plame leak investigation. McClellan told the press in 2003 that Libby and White House strategist Karl Rove had assured him "that they were not involved" in leaking the name of the CIA operative and that these were "unsubstantiated accusations."

McClellan insisted, again and again, that he could not comment on an "ongoing legal proceeding," despite a barrage of questions and Gregory's insistence that McClellan's own credibility "may very well be on trial with the American public."

In an interview last fall, McClellan said: "The media's trying to get under our skin and get us off-message. My job is to help the president advance his agenda."

We go now to the blog world. Philly's Dick Polman : "McClellan's mission was not to merely evade or spin information in the traditional sense. His core purpose was to be the point man for an assertive, even revolutionary, White House effort to delegitimize the mainstream conveyers of the news. And whoever replaces McClellan will play the same role."

John Aravosis at Americablog suppresses a yawn:

"Who cares? Seriously. Bush gets rids of his spokesman? Ooh, big deal. The guy who is ordered to lie for him is going to be replaced by another guy who is ordered to lie for him. And this will significantly change the direction of this disaster of an administration how? Bush also changed the head of the Office of Management and Budget - that would be his accountant, for all intents and purposes. So, we now have a new accountant, and a new mouthpiece who simply parrots what Bush tells him. How is that going to change the situation in Iraq? How is that going to prevent Bush from getting us into a third disastrous war, a nuclear one this time, in Iran? Is the new press secretary or the new accountant going to come up with the war plan for Iran this time instead of Rummy?"

Georgia10 at Kos is practically nostalgic:

"Will anyone be able to fill Scotty's shoes? Who can master the art of 'we don't comment on ongoing investigations?' Who has the stamina to repeat day after day, week after week, that Saddam 'was a grave threat'? Who has the skill to weave the words 'terrorists flew planes into buildings' into at least one question per briefing? The nomination floor is open.

"Buh-bye, Scotty."

The Nation's John Nichols :

"White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan could not resist adding a little irony to the session where it was announced that he was being fired -- er, stepping down -- as the chief spinner for the Bush administration.

" 'You have accomplished a lot over the last several years with this team,' McClellan said to President Bush.

"Yes, the team has accomplished so much that it is being systematically dismantled by new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten at breakneck speed. With public support for the president's agenda dipping to Nixon-in-Watergate lows, and with even the Republican Congress breaking with the White House on major issues, Bolten -- who replaced ousted Chief of Staff Andy Card -- seems to have determined that the administration might need a new team.

"In addition to McClellan's exit Wednesday morning, Karl Rove was edged out of his position as deputy White House chief of staff for policy development. Rove's being delegated back to his old job of managing Republican campaigns from within the White House and at taxpayer expense.

"What next for the old team that helped the president 'accomplish' a 33 percent job approval rating?"

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum looks to the successor:

"Press Secretary Scott McClellan, his credibility having been reduced to tatters long ago, is also stepping down. However, with speculation about Treasury Secretary John Snow's departure heating up, President Bush has apparently made the decision to conserve the number of people named Snow in his administration by offering Scotty's job to Fox News commentator Tony Snow. I don't know why Snow would accept a demotion like that, but that's the scuttlebutt."

Arianna Huffington reflects on Bush as the "decider":

"So, with Rummy, you decided not to accept his decision -- but with McClellan you did. Very decisive. Sorry, Scottie, I guess this means the president is just not that into you."

Power Line's John Hinderaker says McClellan's problem was that he wasn't rough enough with the press:

"I think McClellan has done a capable job, and it's probably wishful thinking to imagine that the President would appoint someone who would take a more combative attitude toward the White House press corps. To be fair, McClellan has sometimes pushed back. But I think there is a lot of room to take a more aggressive approach."

Captain Ed was ready for a new spokesman:

"McClellan's exit comes as no shock to anyone. He performed well enough, but lately has seemed either overmatched by the hostility of the White House press corps or just out of gas. The exchanges between McClellan and the gaggle have become increasingly personal, and the tension has not helped with getting the president's message out to the electorate. When the press secretary becomes the story for weeks on end, the communication process is broken.

"The bigger news to most people will be the announcement that Karl Rove will leave the policy portfolio behind and work exclusively on the upcoming elections. That hardly qualifies as a surprise, either. Rove formally took on policy only after the 2004 elections gave George Bush the last electoral victory of his political career. Most of us expected Rove to informally drop the policy-wonk persona once the 2006 primaries came close.

"This only makes that reassignment official. The GOP needs a fully-engaged Karl Rove in the election, especially since the polling has looked somewhat grim for the Republicans, at least nationally. With the party squabbling and a testy debate about to break out about the direction of the party, Rove can lend his formidable talents to bringing political unity among the factions."

In an even-numbered year, somehow I think Rove would be doing politics no matter what his job description.