WASHINGTON, April 19 — The overhaul of the White House staff continued today as Karl Rove gave up his portfolio as senior policy coordinator to concentrate more on politics and November's midterm Congressional elections and Scott McClellan stepped down as the president's chief spokesman.
Mr. Bush announced that the policy position will be taken by Joel D. Kaplan, who is now the deputy budget director.
Rove has been Bush's policy man for a very long time and, while there's no doubt that he'll be able to use his so-called "talents" to try to help the Republicans retain congressional power this year, I take this move as a clear signal that the Rovemeister is being punted because his policy advice has helped derail the Bushco train right into the proverbial ditch. (apologies for the mixed metaphors)
Look at the huge political mistakes made by Bush in recent memory: the Harriet Miers nomination, the Dubai Ports deal, the rift over Bush's immigration policies. And, of course, there's the Plame affair. We still don't know if Rove will be frog-marched out of Washington in that huge scandal. (Many of us have our fingers crossed on that one.)
Regardless, these sideways moves in the Bush administration still show a rather incestuous environment which is quite unlikely to cause the major "shakeup" that's been promised by putting Josh Bolten in charge of staff changes. It's doubtful that their strategy of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic can actually stop this ship from sinking. Democrats, dead ahead!
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