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President to overhaul economic team quickly: Aides said President Bush is seeking a more skilled economic team that can relate better to Congress and be more effective in dealing with financial markets. (MIKE ALLEN, 11/29/04, Washington Post)

The aides said the replacement of four of the five top economic officials -- including the Treasury and Commerce secretaries, with only budget director Joshua Bolten likely to remain -- is part of Bush's preparation for sending Congress an ambitious second-term domestic agenda.

Administration officials previously had signaled they would move gradually to replace the economic team, but the White House now is indicating it may move more quickly to convey a fresh start. Aides also indicated Bush is considering reaching beyond the kind of administration loyalists who will staff key national security posts in the second term.

Republican officials said Bush's economic team has been weaker than his national security advisors, and that the president believes he needs aides who can relate better to Congress and be more effective in dealing with financial markets and television interviewers. A more skilled team is essential, the aides said, because of the complex and politically challenging agenda of overhauling Social Security to add private investment accounts and simplifying the tax code. [...]

One senior administration official said Treasury Secretary John Snow has been invited to stay as long as he wants to, as long as it is not very long. Friends say Chief of Staff Andrew Card is one possibility to replace him. Bolten also could move over.

But Republican officials said Bush is also considering well-known officials from outside the administration, including New York Gov. George Pataki, a Republican. Conservatives are pushing for former Sen. Phil Gramm, a Republican from Texas.

Certainly hard to believe Andy Card plans to spend four more years at the grinding job of Chief of Staff.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 29, 2004 10:42 AM