STACKING THE DECK :

Why Card's Star Is On the Rise : Bush's chief of staff will play a greater role in president's plans (Howard Fineman, 6/13/02, Newsweek)

[Andrew] Card has been White House chief of staff from Day One. But until now he has had an unusually low profile for someone in such a lofty position. Three events changed that. One: Bush Best Buddy Karen Hughes announced that she is leaving, heading back to Texas for family reasons. Two: Card was quoted in the new issue of Esquire lamenting Hughes's departure, worrying aloud about the burdens he would have to shoulder and the turf battles he would have to fight with the other Bush Best Buddy, Karl Rove. Third: The president has shifted gears and proposed to create a Department of Homeland Security, a plan that had its genesis in Card's office, and that Card will now have major responsibility for shepherding into existence. All of which puts Andrew H. Card Jr. (everyone calls him "Andy") at center stage.

Card's profile is rising at a crucial time. Though Bush's approval ratings still float in the 70s, a run of popularity unprecedented in modern polling, he now faces a decisive moment in his tenure, when attention to detail is going to matter more than the basics of imagemaking and speech-giving, both of which Bush has taken to more expertly than critics (even friends) imagined when he took office in 2000.

On the one one hand, it's frustrating that it took a week for the press to figure out the real point of Andy Card's Esquire interview, which is that he's who Democrats have to go through to get things done. On the other hand, it's gratifying that it was a Colgate University alum who got there first. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 16, 2002 6:40 AM