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October 12, 2005

Clash of the Titans

As David writes below, there is growing distance between GOP presidential hopefuls and the White House's current occupant. But it now appears as though there is growing tension within the White House itself. On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman describes the current turmoil in the White House:

FINEMAN: Right now, my sense, in reporting this, Chris, is that the Bush family, political family, is at war with itself inside the White House. My sense is, it's Andy Card, the chief of staff, and his people against Karl Rove, the brain.

MATTHEWS: Right.

FINEMAN: And that runs through a whole lot of things, whether it's Harriet Miers or Katrina. But it all starts with Iraq.

And some submerged, but now emerging divisions within the administration over why we went into that war, how we went into that war and what was done to sell it. There are people are out for Karl Rove inside that White House, which makes his situation even more perilous.

You can read more about the Rove/Card feud in this Time magazine piece. Karl Rove "was less involved than he is in most major decisions" in picking Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, "a presidential adviser who has been briefed on the chronology of the decision" told Time. "Some conservatives speculate that Rove was distracted or out of the loop because of his possible legal jeopardy in the CIA leak case, but White House officials reject that notion."

It seems the driving force was chief of staff Andrew Card Jr., "who took over the vetting role." Said the adviser: "This is something that Andy and the President cooked up. Andy knew it would appeal to the President because he loves appointing his own people and being supersecret and stealthy about it." And later: "Relations between Rove and Card have always been strained, and this adviser said the nomination has reignited the tension."

Update: As Drudge is reporting today, Rove's conversations with James Dobson suggest that he backed the Miers nomination more than the above reports portray.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at October 12, 2005 10:08 AM

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