CRANKING UP CREEP:

Iron Triangle Forming Over Texas? (Dotty Lynch and Douglas Kiker, 12/16/02, CBS News)

If anyone still has doubts that Campaign 2004 has officially started, the departure of Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh should convince them otherwise.

Allbaugh announced Monday that he'll step down on March 1 as FEMA chief, the AP reports. Allbaugh would not detail his post-FEMA plans, but it's widely expected that he'll play a senior role in President Bush's re-election campaign, along with communications guru Karen Hughes and vice presidential adviser Mary Matalin, two other departed (or soon-to-be departed) White House aides.

Allbaugh, along with Hughes and Karl Rove, is part of what's sometimes called the president's "Iron Triangle" of no-nonsense, rabidly loyal advisers. The trio was credited with orchestrating Mr. Bush's 2000 presidential win, with Allbaugh serving as campaign manager. The gruff Allbaugh, with his signature buzz-cut hairstyle, was known as the campaign's disciplinarian and budget watchdog.

One of far too many indelible memories from September 2001 is that of Joe Albaugh, who looks like a retired NFL lineman, crying when he talked to Brit Hume about visiting the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 16, 2002 2:54 PM