Loyalty to Aides Cuts Both Ways for Bush

Aug 27, 09:30 PM

Current Headlines: KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ For months, in the face of brutal criticism, George Bush stood by Alberto Gonzales.

Now, as the attorney general joins the migration of the president's closest Texas friends out the door, the question is: Where will Bush turn for help in the waning days of his administration now that the Austin crowd is packing its bags and headed home?

And what price did Bush _ and his party _ pay for that loyalty?

Even Bush's supporters are used to the pattern. Bush stuck with political adviser Karl Rove, despite the 2006 election debacle and potential connections with the U.S. attorney quagmire. He nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, when even Republicans criticized her conservative credentials. And this year, Gonzales.

"It's a big code of personal principle for him not to throw people over the side," said Bruce Buchanan, a professor of government at the University of Texas in Austin. "The president has an issue with defiance of people who press him to do things when he's supposed to be the decider."

That defiance has earned Bush the strong support of his friends but may have cost him support in his party and for his presidency.

In 2006 Bush supported Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, even as the situation in Iraq deteriorated, hurting the party's chances at the polls. Later, Republicans were outraged to learn that Rumsfeld had wanted to quit before Election Day but that Bush had refused to accept his resignation until after the voting.

The decision may have cost the GOP the Senate, which in turn led to a series of investigations _ including the circumstances surrounding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys _ that contributed to Gonzales' downfall.

Bush is hardly the first chief executive to hang on to embattled advisers. Most presidents have gone through similar battles because they felt so personally tied to top aides.

"Presidents feel their judgment is being questioned," said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political scientist.

Jim Miller, a Washington-based political adviser who once served as Ronald Reagan's budget director, said, "These are people he's known for a very long time."

He was referring to people like Scott McClellan, former news secretary; Dan Bartlett, former White House counselor; Joe Allbaugh, former FEMA director, once a member of the "iron triangle" involving Rove; and Karen Hughes, now with the State Department.

"They've been traveling with this guy for a long time," said Texas journalist Bill Minutaglio. "There's a strong personal connection."

Many are expected to continue as informal advisers to Bush, but he will have to adjust to new faces, new management styles and new approaches to government.

Republicans and Democrats said the departures could create a bigger opening for another longtime friend, Vice President Dick Cheney.

"It doesn't diminish the vice president at all, even as he's discredited in many ways," said University of Kansas political scientist Burdett Loomis. "He becomes the person who's had the longest-term relationship."

Miller said, "He (Bush) has enormous confidence in Dick Cheney, and for good reason."

But leaning on Cheney, whose poll numbers are lower than Bush's, may be a problem for the White House as it struggles to find support for a variety of issues in the last year of its second term.

Some of the blame for that struggle, Republicans and Democrats said, can be laid at the feet of Gonzales and his long fight to keep his job, a battle that included testimony before Congress that even Republicans found not credible.

"I don't know why the president kept him as long as he did," said former Democratic Rep. Martin Frost of Texas. "It was long overdue."

Former U.S. Attorney Jean Paul Bradshaw of Kansas City said the resignation was the right thing.

"For the good of the department, it was time to move on," Bradshaw said. "Fair or unfair, it's what happens in politics sometimes."

And the Democrats' investigation of the White House, from the U.S. attorney firings to warrantless wiretaps, will undoubtedly continue, as will the fight over Bush's use of executive privilege to shield Gonzales, Rove and other officials from the congressional spotlight.

But Bush will not be without resources. His poll numbers are moving up, based in part on improvements in Iraq and Democrats' concerns about appearing weak on intelligence-gathering and national defense.

For his part, the president on Monday appeared ready to do battle.

Gonzales' "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," he told reporters in Texas.

But in acknowledging that he had accepted Gonzales' resignation reluctantly, Bush may have also signaled his sadness at losing another Texan to the rigors of Washington.

"The only surprise is not that any of the Texans have left, but that they stayed so long," said Mark McKinnon, a former Bush media consultant.

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(McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Dave Montgomery contributed to this report.)

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