White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation today, and Karl Rove is allegedly giving up some of his responsibility for policy development in order to focus on stealing the 2006 mid-term elections.
We’re all but certain that for once, McClellan is telling the truth; if he stops showing up for briefings, we’ll know for sure. Rove’s new role may be more difficult to confirm, but since he’s being replaced as deputy chief of staff for policy by Joel Kaplan, who worked for Josh Bolten at the Office of Management and Budget before Bolten replaced Andy Card as chief of staff, it’s possible.
On the other hand, the notion that Rove served as Card’s deputy rather than the opposite has always been laughable, so it seems unlikely that Rove will have any less influence without the title than he did with it.
No word on McClellan’s replacement, although there’s a rumor of a cinder block missing from the Rose Garden. Look for more on the press room developments from Eric Brewer, our White House correspondent. Maybe he’ll get to ask more questions once Scotty is physically gone from the podium.
Bush press secretary quits, Rove ends policy role
White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation on Wednesday and political adv
Dear Karl: You need to go and urgently so if i may say. You have tipped the balance so bad on the democratic balance that the longer you stay in the white house the worse you are making it for our party. Never mind your baptist southern coalition,our party is suffering from your slithering tacticts that are now in plain view and hurting our republican young lions.
do you think television writer and producer aaron sorkin, if challenged to, could write episodes of ‘the west wing’ if it featured a republican president?
it was always a kind of fantasy of mine that on the last episode of the last season, sheen and crew clear out after the election and who walks in? a few seconds later, maybe the newly elected republicans (the season’s episodes having been written in such a way that you don’t know who wins until that moment).
could sorkin do as well, or as sympathetically with points of view that don’t reflect his own? or can he only write from his heart? in other words, is he only an artiste’ or could he do a copywriter’s job as
well ?
he had a republican character on the show who was a staffer (with an office in the basement–a desk wedged between waterpipes) who was great. she was sort of the leavener to all the liberal crusading and spoke some ‘hold yer horses there just a damn minute’ truths.
assuming sorkin has the chops for that sort of thing, i think he’d make a good relacement for scott mccllenan.
the press secretary’s job has got to be the second greatest high-wire on earth act next to the president, and it would be interesting for any high-minded individual, thinking himself reasonable and articulate to (and without reflexively damning the policy he represents) portray the point of view of the bush administration in a way that would satisfy a pool of reporters and the administration itself.
can it be done? or would you say that the policies of the bush adminstration make explaining the logic of them an automatic forfeit?
because uh, that’s what your last entry seems to imply.
signed.
curious
Mike, I think Ari Fleischer did a good job of satisfying reporters throughout most of his tenure. It wasn’t until the administration’s various skullduggeries began to unravel that reporters started getting testy with him. McClellan didn’t really start to suffer until the Plame investigation revealed that he’d either lied or been lied to about Rove’s and Libby’s involvement. Whoever takes McClellan’s place will have an even harder time.
I don’t watch much TV, so I can’t really speculate about West Wing. I did catch maybe 20 minutes of a rerun featuring the Alan Alda character, who seemed to be treated sympathetically by the writers. Whether that’s indicative of a larger capacity, I have no idea.
various skullduggeries? to what do you refer? when were the reporters not testy? do you figure he got a pass until the shine wore off 9/11? and for that you say he did a good job, but couldn’t take it when the reporters finally got their sea legs? i liked ari but he’s quoted as saying he burned out on the ‘absurd desire of many reporters to serve the master of gotcha’ above any other responsibility. ari was (and is) nothing but complimentary and supportive of the administration he served long after he had to be.
alan alda was a sympathetic character. i’d bet you watch more tv than you like to admit, but i don’t blame you. i don’t like to admit it either.
however, anybody who spends as much time as you do before a computer screen had to have begun with the other boob tube.
m
I have a TV, but it isn’t plugged in. The only time I watch is with my kid, and that’s either Animal Planet or Disney, for the most part. But yeah, I was weaned on the tube.
Ari did a good job of answering the questions he wanted to answer and not pissing off the press pool when he didn’t want to answer something. But as the administration’s troubles pile up, the ratio of answerable questions to unanswerable ones decreases, and the reporters get peeved. The next press secretary will start out where McClellan ended up, and go downhill from there.
The Press Corps actually like McClellan better than they like Ari because Scott has the moral fiber to look uncomfortable when he’s required to lie while Ari took such obvious pleasure in lying.
The character referenced is Ainsley Hayes, in the counsel office … she moved on to CSI. The show also portrayed a Janice Brown sort Supreme Court pick in a good light as well as in general the John Goodman Speaker of the House character.