December 5, 2004
PRESIDENT MORE THAN MEETS THE PUNDIT EYE:
Bush II Cabinet: the shuffle and shape of things to come: His inner sanctum faces one of the biggest turnovers since Nixon. But the cast of characters may matter less. (Linda Feldmann, 12/06/04, CS Monitor)
"We haven't seen this since Richard Nixon roamed the halls of the West Wing," says Marshall Wittmann, a political independent and senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council. "There's more here than meets the eye. After four years, it's not unusual for cabinet members to leave; what's striking here is the volume. It leads one to believe that this was orchestrated."
No slouch, this Mr. Whittman--December 2004 and he's figured out that the President orchestrates his presidency. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 5, 2004 6:09 PM
There's a lot less here than meets the eye. The trend is towards a steady increase in cabinet tenure, but even so the Bush cabinet has been extraordinarily stable up till now.
Posted by: David Cohen at December 5, 2004 6:43 PMWhen the history of Mr. Bush's presidency is written almost half the nation will still need someone explain it them.
Posted by: Tom Wall at December 5, 2004 10:01 PMNote the obligatory reference to Nixon which is supposed to tarnish Bush by association.
Posted by: AWW at December 5, 2004 10:49 PMHow quickly the "sophisticated" forget: Jimmy Carter basically fired his entire cabinet in the summer of 1979, when he reached meltdown as President.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 5, 2004 11:52 PMCan't have Presidents orchestratin their Presidencies can we? They may actually decide to start governing or fulfilling their campaign promises. Running the country is why the punditocracy, the K Street lobbyists and the MSM exist. What'll they do if Presidents start running things?
Posted by: Bart at December 6, 2004 10:14 AM