My, my. How things do change when the heat is on. This from Kos:
September 29, 2003:McClellan: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the improper disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's identity], they would no longer be in this administration."
September 30, 2003:
Bush: "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action."
Earlier Today:
Bush: "If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."
Bush will never fire Rove. He knows that he couldn't have been elected to the local School Board, let alone become the most powerful man in the world, without Rove's disciplined rhetoric and fiendishly networked talking points.
Need evidence of Rove's hold on Bush. This is from Ron Suskind's book "The Price of Loyalty." The source was former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
He says everyone expected Mr. Bush to rubber stamp the plan under discussion: a big new tax cut. But, according to Suskind, the president was perhaps having second thoughts about cutting taxes again, and was uncharacteristically engaged."He asks, 'Haven't we already given money to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again,'" says Suskind.
"He says, 'Didn't we already, why are we doing it again?' Now, his advisers, they say, 'Well Mr. President, the upper class, they're the entrepreneurs. That's the standard response.' And the president kind of goes, 'OK.' That's their response. And then, he comes back to it again. 'Well, shouldn't we be giving money to the middle, won't people be able to say, 'You did it once, and then you did it twice, and what was it good for?'"
But according to the transcript, White House political advisor Karl Rove jumped in.
"Karl Rove is saying to the president, a kind of mantra. 'Stick to principle. Stick to principle.' He says it over and over again," says Suskind. "Don't waver."
Sure, Bush has a folksy charm, but his confidence has mostly been garnered through carefully orchestrated victories and the power gained from those victories. Before he was elected governor he was still just a recovering drunken frat boy who liked to watch baseball games, a corporate patsy with his father's powerful name.
One thing you know about Bush is that he is extremely loyal. You know that deep down inside he knows that Rove created him, molded his 'ol drunken country smirk into the presidential smirk. But that is not the only reason he won't let Rove go. He, like all others that have crossed Rove, is terrified of what Rove would do to him in the press.
Can you say seven figure book deal?
Posted by Paul Hina at July 19, 2005 08:32 AM