BIG MAMA'S HOUSE:

Hughes Is Set to Rejoin White House Team (Peter Baker, March 11, 2005, Washington Post)

Karen P. Hughes, the longtime adviser to President Bush often described as the most powerful woman ever to work in the White House, plans to return to Washington soon to rejoin the president's team as he sets forth on an ambitious second-term agenda, according to White House officials and outside Republican advisers.

Seen as a virtual alter ego for Bush who understands how he thinks better than any other adviser, Hughes helped the president build his administration as his counselor in the first term before her surprise resignation in April 2002 to return to Texas with her family. Her forceful presence and physical stature helped cement her position as a key player in any policy decision.

Hughes has continued to advise Bush from her home in Texas, particularly on major speeches and communications strategies, and she traveled with him during the most difficult days of last year's campaign. But now that her son Robert is preparing to head to college this fall, she is ready to return to Washington for more than several days a week to work for the president, although she will not move the family home, according to sources familiar with her plans.

The most important job of the second term remains open: Andy Card's successor.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 11, 2005 12:08 PM