Vox Baby: Bolten To Replace Card as Chief of Staff

Andrew Samwick writes about replacing Card with Bolten:

Vox Baby: Bolten To Replace Card as Chief of Staff: Bolten To Replace Card as Chief of Staff: The President announced today that Josh Bolten would replace Andy Card as White House chief of staff. This strikes me as a very good move. The administration achieved its major policy successes with Bolten in the White House as deputy chief of staff. He was underutilized at OMB, given the insufficiently ambitious deficit reduction goals set by the President. (Yes, that's a euphemism.)

Of all the people I met while working in the Executive Office of the President, there were three who impressed me most with their ability to understand complicated policy issues very quickly. Bolten was one. Another was Keith Hennessey, deputy director of the National Economic Council. The other was David Hobbs, director of legislative affairs, who has since moved on to lobbying. So Bush has a very smart guy running the show. This leaves the directorship of OMB vacant. I wouldn't be surprised if Joel Kaplan, the current deputy director, were promoted from the inside.

We can all agree that Andrew Card was the worst chief of staff ever: a man who was very good at making sure that the president heard only what he wanted to hear.

But I don't understand Andrew's enthusiasm for Bolten. First, I don't understand what "major policy successes" Andrew Samwick thinks the Bush administration accomplished with Bolten as deputy chief of staff. Major political successes, yes. But policy successes? By what moving-of-the-goalposts can the Bush policy record be characterized as better than a goose egg? And to the extent that Bolten was an effective deputy chief of staff, he bears his share of the blame.

And then there is this strange passage from Samwick: "[Bolten] was underutilized at OMB, given the insufficiently ambitious deficit reduction goals set by the President. (Yes, that's a euphemism.)" In other words, Bolten did not do his job at OMB. The job of the OMB Director is to be the pain-in-the-ass always arguing for sounder fiscal policy, for taxes to cover expenditures, and for expenditures that are cost effective. Bolten didn't do that. It's true that Bush didn't want him to do his real job. But that's the point: we want public servants, not presidential servants, in office.

My take: bad news. The Bush administration will continue to be worse than we imagine--even after taking account of the fact that it is worse than we imagine.

Comments

[liberal]

"But I don't understand Andrew's enthusiasm for Bolten. First, I don't understand what 'major policy successes' Andrew Samwick thinks the Bush administration accomplished with Bolten as deputy chief of staff."

Time to repeat dsquared again:
"...can anyone, particularly the rather more Bush-friendly recent arrivals to the board, give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics:
1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration
2. It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it)
3. It wasn't in some important way completely fucked up during the execution."

http://d-squareddigest.blogspot.com/2003_02_23_d-squareddigest_archive.html#89796111

[Charles Kinbote]

Even though I know that Josh Bolten is going to be Andy Card's replacement, when I saw the headline my first thought was that that idiot John Bolton was going leave the UN to take the job.

Hey, I can create my own reality, too, if just for a second!

[Ari]

Andrew Samwick is a Republican so I only expect him to be a Republican.

[Tom Cecere]

Yo, Ari...Samwick killed Bush over the Social Security plan. Might want to read up a bit before slamming.

And, what, pray, is wrong, or surprising, about someone toeing the party line? As if there's any difference in actions between parties? My rule for paying attention to a politician or writer is, "If the guy he hates did the same thing that the guy he loves just did, how would he react?"

Try to imagine if George Bush had an affair with an intern -- how many Libs and Dems would find logical (to them) reasons why this was truly bad while Clinton was just a personal failing? And, heaven forbid, Hillary Clinton decides to lock someone up without a trial...jeez, the camo fatigues would be out on the streets of every town in New Hampshire and Vermont, for sure.

But Samwick is much more thoughtful than that. Engage an idea you disagree with once a week, it's good for you. It also makes it harder to simply dismiss people with a pejorative (which, in your missive, "Republican" certainly is).

[elliottg]

Samwick is a Republican. He sometimes writes posts where he wants Democrats do such-and-such to please him or some mythical middle, but he's never suggested that he's anything but a Republican. I don't know what you're talking about his "killing" Bush on Social Security. He wanted privatization as much as Bush, even more; he just couldn't bring himself to lie quite as much.

[robert waldmann]

Hmmm why don't I search Brad's blog for
bolten "game changer" ? See if Brad secretely agreed with Samwick or something.

Took a bit of doing. I had to search the old old url which I present with dots removed so manybe it won't get removed by the scourge of spammers (This will be posted over at my blog only because blogger doesn't strip out links).

econ161 berkeley edu / movable_type.

I finally got to the site slash 2004_archives slash 000303. acronym for hyper text markup language. Which begins

February 16, 2004
"What's the Antonym of "White House Aide?" (Things Worse Than I Could Have Imagined Department)

An aide is somebody who works for you who helps you"

and includes "Glenn [Hubbard] thinks that a deficit of $200 billion pushes up interest rates by just three basis points [or .03 perent]," [Deputy Chief of Staff] Josh Bolten interjected, bringing things back to the key issue of whether the dividend tax cut was affordable."

Bolten is discussing a deficit for one year and not the effect of a permanent increase in the deficit. He is according to Brad an anti-aid from the negaverse.

Brad is consistent.

However, I ask you Brad, did you remember (as I did) that searching for bolten and "game changer" would lead to damning proof that Bolten is a hack ?