Bolten’s First Act As Chief of Staff Is To Defend Rumsfeld

[rodeodance]

http://thinkprogress.org/?tag=Administration

Bolten’s First Act As Chief of Staff Is To Defend Rumsfeld

When it was announced last month that Josh Bolten would be replacing Andrew Card as the White House chief of staff, the media interpreted the move as “a modest attempt at a fresh start for a White House that had stumbled recently.” Lately, the media has been pronouncing that Bolten would be aiming for “sweeping staff changes.”

Bolten’s first day on the job yesterday served to dismiss the media’s theories. Bolten’s “fresh start” began with defending the administration’s old mistakes:

The defense of Rumsfeld in effect was the first act of new White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten, who took over as Andrew H. Card Jr. left the West Wing yesterday afternoon for the final time as Bush’s top aide. White House aides decided that press secretary Scott McClellan’s statement of support Thursday was inadequate to stem the growing chorus of resignation calls from the military.

Meanwhile, a seventh general has added his name to the growing chorus...:

[Rex]

1. No media bias here

"...the media interpreted the move as “a modest attempt at a fresh start for a White House that had stumbled recently."

Recently? Recently? So for the past 5 year, everything has been running smoothly? Dam, wish someone would have told me about it! I thought this country was going to hell in a hand-basket.

[saltpoint]

2. A hunch here: Bolten got the job so he would appear to be new blood

when in fact he's only recirculating old blood.

To me it signals that Bush and Cheney are not going to make meaningful staff changes until they have absolutely no choice to. And the more insular they become the more prone they are to leaks that will undo them.

If you grip sand in your fingers hard, you'll lose a lot of it. If you hold it gently, most of it's retained.

These guys are hardgrippers and it's going to cost them.