political adviser

In the latest shakeup at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Robert Gibbs has announced he will be leaving as White House Press Secretary next month:

Gibbs will depart in February, and he plans to become an outside political adviser to President Obama. He will also give private sector speeches, according to the Associated Press.

No replacement has been named.

"He's had a six-year stretch now where basically he's been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it's natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House," President Obama told the New York Times.

It will be interesting to see who replaces him. Maybe Obama should go all Bush and appoint someone like Keith Olbermann or Ed Schultz. Yeah that won’t happen.

John McCain wants to be Bush so bad that he is now hiring all his people:

Ken Mehlman, who ran Bush's 2004 campaign, is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to the Arizona Republican. Karl Rove, the president's top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain.

The list could grow longer. Dan Bartlett, formerly a top aide in the Bush White House, and Sara Taylor, the erstwhile Bush political adviser, said they are eager to provide any assistance and advice possible to McCain.

Yes keep that list growing. How about bring on Rumsfeld too?

This will certainly become a big thing at this week's hearings:

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out.

Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president.

At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.

Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue.

The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7.

Now we have Bush directly involved in this, as well as Karl Rove. Now why would the White House's "political adviser" be involved in something that isn't supposed to involve politics, and why was the President allowing this? Only one answer makes sense - Bush knew and allowed a political firing of a U.S. attorney.

To make this issue stick even more, it looks like people in Domenici's own office are getting scared and now talking:

The Journal confirmed the sequence of events through a variety of sources familiar with the firing of Iglesias, including sources close to Domenici. The senator's office declined comment.

Good thing for Pete he has already lawyered up. With this big story coming out, it is no wonder why Fred Feilding is starting to be a little more cooperative with Congress. He must think this White House is worse off than Nixon's.

Josh has more on this.

The White House will stop at nothing until they get all the federal prosecutors replaced with their political buddies:

A United States attorney in Arkansas who was dismissed from his job last year by the Justice Department was ousted after Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, intervened on behalf of the man who replaced him, according to Congressional aides briefed on the matter.

 Ms. Miers, the aides said, phoned an aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggesting the appointment of J. Timothy Griffin, a former military and civilian prosecutor who was a political director for the Republican National Committee and a deputy to Karl Rove, the White House political adviser.

 Later, the incumbent United States attorney, H. E. Cummins III, was removed without explanation and replaced on an interim basis by Mr. Griffin. Officials at the White House and Justice Department declined to comment on Ms. Miers’s role in the matter.

The Senate is trying to get rid of this practice, but we have Republicans like Jon Kyl blocking the Democrats efforts. Remember - this was something pushed into the Patriot Act by someone in Specter's office.

Considering how the Republicans are so quick to block all new legislation, I guess the only rebut will be to make sure the Democrats majority grows next year. That shouldn't be to hard considering most senators up for reelection are Republicans. If we can pick up 10 seats, that would be perfect. We would have enough to vote for cloture and enough to tell Lieberman to fuck off.

The White House took issue on Thursday with a claim by syndicated columnist Robert Novak that President George W. Bush knows who the source is who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

"I don't know what he's basing it on," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, declining to comment further.

Novak said Tuesday the public and the news media should be asking Bush about the source rather than reporters who received the information.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."

He added: "So I say, don't bug me. Don't bug (Washington Post reporter) Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is."

Novak has repeatedly declined to discuss his role in disclosing Plame's identity. It was his column on July 14, 2003, that outed Plame and triggered an ongoing investigation into the leak.

Plame's cover at the CIA was blown after her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to support invading Iraq. Wilson said it was done to undercut his credibility.

The two-year investigation, which has reached into the highest levels of the White House, resulted in charges in October of perjury and obstructing justice against Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby, who pleaded not guilty, has resigned from the administration.

Bush's top political adviser and deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, was told by prosecutors that he remained under investigation and could still be charged.

Here's an interesting article compliments of the

Associated Press:

Bush Orders Staff to Review Ethics
Rules

President Bush, reacting to the indictment of a high-level White House
aide in the CIA leak case, has ordered his staff to get a refresher on
ethics rules.

In a memo sent to all White House aides on Friday, the counsel's office
said it will hold briefings next week on ethics, with a particular focus on
the rules governing the handling of classified information. Attendance is
mandatory for anyone holding any level of security clearance.

"There will be no exceptions," the memo said.

The week after, the counsel's office is holding sessions on general
ethical conduct for the rest of the staff.

"The president has made clear his expectation that each member of his
Executive Office of the President (EOP) Staff adhere to the spirit as well
as the letter of all rules governing ethical conduct for EOP Staff," the
memo said.

After a two-year investigation, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of
staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted last week, charged with lying
to investigators and the grand jury about leaking the CIA status of Valerie
Plame, who was a covert officer. Plame's CIA status was exposed in July 2003
after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the
administration of twisting intelligence before the war to exaggerate the
Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is said to be still considering
whether Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, illegally misled
investigators. Libby has resigned and Rove remains on the job.