More White House Bombshells - New Chief of Staff Takes Rove’s Place In WHIG, WHIIG
Longtime Bush Aide Said “Devastated”; After Shouting Match, Left Way To Get Back In By Performing Special Task
New Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten continued his molding of the White House today by dropping, not a shoe, but a steel-toed, heavy workboot, , announcing – internally – that he is replacing Karl Rove on the influential White House Iraq Group (WHIG) and the newly formed White House Iraq and Iran Group (WHIIG)
Just yesterday, Rove had his title and position of Senior Advisor and Chief Policy Aide to the President stripped away, in what many in the Beltway view as a demotion. Rove, at present, remains as Deputy Chief of Staff, but will be repositioned to focus on a new smear campaign for the 2006 Congressional Midterm Election.
Sources are telling The Garlic that early this morning, as the bulk of the West Wing staffers were arriving to work, Rove and Bolten were engaged in a heated shouting match inside Bolten’s office.
“Man, they were really going at it,” offered on official. “They had to be toe-to-toe, by the sound of it.”
Reportedly, Rove, in the course of the shouting, threatened Bolten with “I’m taking this to the president!”, only to have the new Chief of Staff slam back “I’ve already talked about this with him, brainy boy!”
With that, the shouting stopped and Rove emerged a few minutes later looking, according to one staffer, “devastated.”
Bolten Wielding Hammer In Shaping New White House
The tension between Rove and Bolten has been simmering since Tuesday, Bolten’s first day on the job.
With the White House in disarray, over the heavy criticism of, and the calls for his resignation, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The President was forced into making strong statements in defending Rumsfeld, and then, a planned press conference, with vintage Army wagons surrounding the Secretary fell through, when a snafu cropped up in procuring them.
Bolten, reportedly ordered FEMA trailers to be brought in, and be painted Army green, but was overruled by Rove.
Since then, Bolton has been wielding a hammer in shaping a new White House staff, pushing out Press Secretary Scott McClellan, and naming two aides with allegiances to himself - Joel Kaplan as new White House deputy chief of staff for policy, and Rob Portman to succeed Bolten as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Bolten Used Early Meeting To Boot Rove Out Of WHIG
And that, according the West Wing staffers that spoke to The Garlic, is what the shouting match was all about.
Bolten was using the early morning meeting, according to one source, to inform Rove that he was being removed from both WHIG and WHIIG.
It is with a hint of irony that Bolten now joins the groups, as it was his predecessor, Andy Card, who launched WHIG, as a means to market the United States invading and occupying Iraq.
Those that regular attend WHIG meetings include Chief of Staff Andy Card (who started the group), Special Council to the President Karl Rove, I. Lewis "Scooter: Libby, Vice President Cheney's former Chief of Staff, special media advisor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, former cabinet member, now World Bank leader Paul Wolfiwitz, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes, and policy advisors James R. Wilkinson and legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio
There was no indication that Rove would have to step down from Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Cabal, if , in fact, Rove is a member of that group.
Bolten Says Rove Back In – If He Ties Iran To 9-11
All is not lost for the man dubbed “Bush’s Brain”.
According to Harold "Ace" Larson, an analyst for the counterintelligence think tank, 'Book'em and Beat'em', Bolton offered Rove the opportunity to “earn his way” back into WHIG and, more importantly, WHIIG.
“The buzz going through the grapevine,” said Larson, “is that Rove has to come up with a plausible connection of Iran being behind, or involved in the September 11th attacks. And there’s an unspecified bonus if he comes up with documented evidence of it.”
Larson says that Rove is “jumping” at the task, gleefully and “full of purpose.”
“He’s already putting out feelers to his contacts at State, the CIA, DIA ... He’s made it known he wants anything and everything.”
Larson says that with Bolton, there’ll be no “mushroom clouds” or “aluminum tubes”, and that he wants “fingerprints.”
“Andy was a marketing guy, and everybody saw the job they did with creating the illusion of a threat with Iraq. Joshua is much more pragmatic, he’s not going to bite on the glitz.”
While not much is known about WHIIG, Larson offered that they will likely “have something in the cooker by September, October.”
“They’ll want to have something to put out in time to affect the Fall Midterms.”
Rove, Potentially, Turns Into ‘Bush’s Drain”
Larson also added that “Bolton’s a smart cookie.”
“This will keep Rove occupied for awhile, and, in the process, out of his hair. And there’s also the indictment thing. What Josh is doing is building up some distance between Rove and the West Wing, in case the you-know-what hits the fan.”
Bolton, according to Larson, saw how close Scooter Libby was to the Oval Office and he is going to do what he as to do, to not let that repeat itself with Rove.
Rove, it has been widely reported, remains under investigation by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, with new rumors circulating that evidence is being presented to a grand jury for criminal charges against Rove.
“If Rove gets indicted,” said Larson, “he quickly becomes “Bush’s Drain”.
Longtime Aide Karl Rove quickly goes from "Bush's Brain" to "Bush's Drain" if indicted
