NYT’s Stevenson on the Bunker Mentality in the White House
Here’s an interesting write-up from Richard W. Stevenson of the New York Times: Jitters at the White House over the leak inquiry.
Lawyers for most of the officials who have testified before the grand jury have by and large chosen not to share information with one another, leaving colleagues largely in the dark about what others are telling Mr. Fitzgerald.
There is a presumption inside the White House that anyone who was indicted would resign or go on leave to fight the charges, though it is unclear what planning has taken place for that possibility.
The prospect of a White House without Mr. Rove, Mr. Bush’s longtime strategist, has some allies of the president in a near panic, fearful that without him the administration would lose the one person capable of enforcing discipline across a party that has become increasingly fractious and that is almost at war with itself over the president’s nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court.
October 14th, 2005 at 5:37 pm
Not only the president’s allies should be concerned. With the prospect of Rove and Libby both gone, I suspect infighting could break out among various factions in the administration. Neocons vs. Christian fanatics, or something to that effect.
We should be grateful that Bush chose Miers. Of course, she’s no Thurgood Marshall. However, neither is she an Antonin Scalia. Now with a sort of power vacuum opening up in the coming days and weeks, conservative radicals (yes, even more radical than Rove or the Perle-ites) could get the upper hand, possibly just in time to force Bush to withdraw Miers and propose someone from the 700 Club. And that’s just one example.
My idea is simply that we should not get rid of Rove without getting rid of Bush. I would even replace the former with the latter if given the choice. Bush is even more dangerous when left to his own devices. As a man incapable of making decisions based on any sort of rational, analytical thought processes, he seeks influence and guidance, and when he cannot find it in earthly sources, then he finds it in a higher authority.