What We Know For Certain

President George W. Bush did not make the decision to axe Andrew Card. We know this for certain because George Bush does not make any decisions. He has input, yes. But he has no final say on ANYTHING. And this is because everyone in Washington, DC knows he’s an alcoholic former cocaine addict mentally impaired idiot. So who made the decision to fire Card? Who is continuing to make decisions about additional cuts, and heave-ho’s? Who is deciding on the new budget director to fill Josh Bolton’s old job? John Snow’s days as Secretary of Treasury are numbered. That’s a given. Who is handing down the decision on the new Treasury Secretary? The big decision-makers are most likely the members of WHIG, the White House Iraq Group task force that Andy Card and Karl Rove started in 2003 to sell the Iraq invasion to the public. The members of WHIG in addition to Rove are Karen Hughes (Under Secretary of State for public diplomacy with the rank of Ambassador), Mary Matalin (an American political strategist and consultant who has, in the past, told both Dick Cheney and George W. Bush what to do and how to act), James R. Wilkinson (Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), Nicholas Calio (Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs), Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State) and Stephen Hadley (Assistant to the President For National Security Affairs). There is no reason for Karen Hughes to be in this group except to be GWB’s surrogate mommy, but there she is, nonetheless. When Condi Rice was promoted from surrogate mommy No. 2 to Secretary of State she gained a measure of acceptance only because of her title. Ergo, she is in WHIG. These seven people in addition to The Carlyle Group’s Frank Carlucci are the most likely current members of the White House employment agency. The names floating around for Snow’s job are Henry M. Paulson Jr. who is chief executive of Goldman Sachs; John J. Mack, the chief executive of Morgan Stanley; and Richard D. Parsons, the chairman of Time Warner. Paulson was staff assistant to President Nixon from 1972 to 1973 and served as staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon from 1970 to 1972. Mack received the up-from-rags Horatio Alger Award in 2002. He became CEO of Morgan Stanley after a bitter fight for the job with Philip Purcell. Parsons was on Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s legal staff and stayed with him when Rockefeller became VP in 1974. Parsons then became a senior White House aide under President Gerald Ford. My bet is on Paulson who was paid a $29.8 million salary in 2004. The White House loves a rich successful corporate sombitch. I keep wondering how long the press is going to honor the fiction that George W. Bush makes decisions. GWB has peeves, druthers, hates, likes, leanings, and loyalties. But GWB does not decide anything more crucial than whether he’ll go to bed at 9:00 or 9:15. And even that brain-buster is helped along by nannies and minders.