White House Shake and Bake

From a Washington Post article about the White House 'shake-ups'-

White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten seeks to rescue the remainder of Bush's presidency. Coupled with other changes already announced and still in the works, Bolten hopes to demonstrate to the public and the Republican-led Congress that it will no longer be business as usual in a White House afflicted by political defeats, an overseas war and shrinking public support.

Huh? I would hope that the Congress and public are not so easily swayed to buy this.

This is business as usual; they're moving people into different offices. The White House has yet to bring in a single new face or change a single position of consequence. The new Chief of Staff was bumped up from the Budget office (where he did great job twiddling his fingers as the deficit grew). His replacement in that office was bumped up from another job inside the White House as well. Scott McClellan was just the spokesman and his rumored replacements are all current, and former, Bush folk. And Karl Rove being 'demoted' to work his political hitman magic full-time? That's not a sign of change; it's the White House quietly acknowledging the Republicans are in worse trouble than they've let on. And his replacement on the policy beat? As I noted yesterday, another current administration member.

Why is the President so afraid of bringing in someone new, that he doesn't know?

Could it be because the White House doesn't really want change, but merely wants the impression of it? It's all about PR, bay-bee! Or could it be because the White House has so many secrets to keep, it can't risk bringing in some outsider they can't trust. I say who knows, who cares. As long as the White House focuses on meaningless changes like those mentioned above, they will continue to implode.

As Matt Stoller notes-

[The President] likes feeling like he makes big decisions and has 'the vision thing' (as another Bush once put it), so power rests with infighting advisors who tell him what to do in the guise of 'taking care of the details'. All problems are ascribed to as ones of 'communications' as the AM talk radio circuit has been spewing for months, which allows blame to go to the communications staff instead of those with the real power. That's why Scott and Card don't matter; Scott is a press release shaped like a human (nothing really changed when Ari Fleischer left), while Card was a glorified office manager. The Rove 'demotion' is in all likelihood a sham, since he's kept his security clearance and is gearing up for the midterms. The only serious member of the White House to leave is actually Scooter Libby, and that wasn't Bush's doing.

This is an awful situation. We have a man frightened to be President clinging desperately to the comforting adults who tell him what to do. These 'adults' happen to be vicious ideologues bent showing the world their manliness no matter how weak they transparently are. In other words, this isn't a real shake-up, because at this point Bush can't shake up the White House staff.

He can, he just doesn't want to.

And yet, through all this chatter since yesterday, one thing is getting buried...

Donald Rumsfeld still has a job and the number of generals who want him out increases. And silly cynical me can't help but wonder if Mr. Bolten didn't purposely schedule this week's "changes" to interrupt the news cycle's coverage of the Rumsfeld imbroglio. Firing McClellan (oops, I'm sorry, he 'resigned') or someone like that has no effect on this presidency or the country. It will not reverse the trend of incompetence and failure that is plaguing this administration. Firing Rumsfeld, however, would. It would send a powerful signal that the President is acknowledging how disastrous the war has gone thus far and is proactively seeking new ideas and solutions to that situation. But it will never happen. Because they won't admit failures. And Donald Rumsfeld's in too deep to go now. As Tim Russert said, the President "won’t fire Rumsfeld because it would be the equivalent of firing himself."

Bingo. And so nothing will change.

But Josh Bolten hopes you're not thinking about it all that hard.

[PS- Watch video of Colbert's take on the Rumsfeld controvery- 'Sir, Yes Sir'.]