White House Staff Change is Business as Usual

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

President Bush will soon have a new chief of staff. Earlier this morning, he announced that the long-serving Andrew Card had resigned. Josh Bolton, who is the White House budget director, will take his place.

President GEORGE W. BUSH: Josh is a creative policy thinker. He's an expert on the budget and our economy. He's respected by members of Congress from both parties. He's a strong advocate for effective, accountable management in the federal government. He's a man of candor and humor and directness, who's comfortable with responsibility, and knows how to lead.

MONTAGNE: President Bush speaking this morning at the White House.

Joining me now is NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams. Good morning.

JUAN WILLIAMS reporting:

Good morning, Renee.

MONTAGNE: Members of President Bush's own party have been calling for new faces at the White House. How is today's announcement likely to be received? Is this the new, or the old face they want to see go, and the new face they want to see show up?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think it was one of the old faces they want to see gone. You know, Andy Card had been widely criticized in the course of the Harriet Meyers nomination. The sense was that he was out of touch with what the Republican base wanted in terms of a Supreme Court nominee. He was criticized in terms of a slow response on Katrina. So, there's lots of sense that he was tired. He would have been soon the longest serving White House chief of staff if he'd completed six years, and he was now into his fifth year.

The new face, though, the new face coming on, Josh Bolton, is not seen from the outside as any radical departure from Andy Card. In fact, he's been in the White House the whole time. He was Any Card's deputy at one point, before he became head of the White House office of management and budget. But among people inside the White House, he's seen as younger. You heard the president refer to him as a more creative thinker this morning. And so, in terms of domestic policy, in terms of all those initiatives, the White House staff feels like it's a breath of fresh air.

MONTAGNE: Josh Bolton has worked not just at the White House, but on the hill, on Wall Street. How have those jobs prepared him for this new position, and it might help to get a primer on what the new position means.

WILLIAMS: Well, the new position is one that requires that you know how Washington works, and Josh Bolton definitely does that. I mean, he went to high school here. As you said, he was the, worked in the first Bush White House as the lobbyist to the Congress, so he knows the Congress. And day to day, what the job means is you set the president's schedule, you decide who meets with the president--not just in terms of people coming from the hill or from other countries, but even members of the White House staff. And so, by setting the president's schedule and whom he meets with, to a large degree, you're setting the president's agenda: the ideas, the people that are coming through the Oval Office. And that's what Josh knows. Bolton is so well-known and well liked among White House staff, among the hill staff, that I think it'll be a very smooth transition.

MONTAGNE: And just briefly, the president still has three years to go in his term. Do you think this change will make a big difference?

WILLIAMS: No. In fact, you know, people on the right are criticizing Bolton already, saying, you know, he was at OMB, and the deficit spending is a problem that they have with this president. But Bolton is just a younger, more energetic guy. While Andy Card was married to a minister, Josh Bolton is single. He's the kind of person who loves motorcycles, occasionally rides his motorcycle, his Harley Davidson, to work. You know, at one point, was taking Bo Derek around to tell her about the president's staff.

MONTAGNE: Juan, thanks very much. That's NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams. President Bush announced this morning that Josh Bolton will be his new chief of staff, replacing Andy Card, who's resigned.

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