My one post about the Card resignation
So Andy Card bows out…. and Josh Bolten bows in. Over at washingtonpost.com, Dan Froomkin repeats today’s conventional wisdom — Bush’s poll ratings and miscues on Katrina, Dubai, etc., forced him into this move. But this overlooks the deeper cause — these jobs are just exhausting. The hours are killer. In this administration at least, ...
So Andy Card bows out.... and Josh Bolten bows in. Over at washingtonpost.com, Dan Froomkin repeats today's conventional wisdom --- Bush's poll ratings and miscues on Katrina, Dubai, etc., forced him into this move. But this overlooks the deeper cause -- these jobs are just exhausting. The hours are killer. In this administration at least, White House staffers only get in the news when they've screwed up. There's a reason why, prior to this administration, people had only served an average of two years in high-ranking positions. Time's Mike Allen points out that Card knew this as well: A wily veteran of Massachusetts politics, Card has been predicting his own departure since Nov. 1, 2001, when he told a Boston audience, "The half-life for a chief of staff is two years... There are very few people who had the experience I am having that survived very long, and that is appropriate. There is no security. I will not vest in the pension system at the White House." What's amazing to me is not that Card has resigned -- it's that there are so many people who have been working at high levels in this administration for six years and show no signs of leaving. That said, readers are invited to guess who will be the next high-ranking Bush official to leave.... my money would be on this guy. Meanwhile, the Salon letters on this topic have taken on a decidedly repugnant tone.
So Andy Card bows out…. and Josh Bolten bows in. Over at washingtonpost.com, Dan Froomkin repeats today’s conventional wisdom — Bush’s poll ratings and miscues on Katrina, Dubai, etc., forced him into this move. But this overlooks the deeper cause — these jobs are just exhausting. The hours are killer. In this administration at least, White House staffers only get in the news when they’ve screwed up. There’s a reason why, prior to this administration, people had only served an average of two years in high-ranking positions. Time’s Mike Allen points out that Card knew this as well:
A wily veteran of Massachusetts politics, Card has been predicting his own departure since Nov. 1, 2001, when he told a Boston audience, “The half-life for a chief of staff is two years… There are very few people who had the experience I am having that survived very long, and that is appropriate. There is no security. I will not vest in the pension system at the White House.”
What’s amazing to me is not that Card has resigned — it’s that there are so many people who have been working at high levels in this administration for six years and show no signs of leaving. That said, readers are invited to guess who will be the next high-ranking Bush official to leave…. my money would be on this guy. Meanwhile, the Salon letters on this topic have taken on a decidedly repugnant tone.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner
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