SNOW REMOVAL
The Bush Administration has never liked its Cabinet secretaries to
be the flashy, spotlight-seeking type, Donald
Rumsfeld and Colin Powell aside. Most
agency leaders in the first term tended to disappear into the
background, toe the Administration line, and keep the trains moving
on time. Now most of the higher profile Cabinet folk are jumping
ship (or are being pushed), and replacements are being brought on
line.
Again, the Administration isn’t surprising anyone. Low profile
types, who will do a serviceable job, and keep out of the
Administration’s way for the most part. But in the case of one
Department, the White House is mulling a change that could prove
interesting, if not entertaining.
While most of President Bush’s Cabinet performed well out on the
campaign trail, one secretary did not: Treasury Secretary
John Snow. The former CEO was considered an
important advocate for the Bush Administration’s tax and economic
policy, but was often caught flubbing things up, particularly in
the closing weeks of the campaign in states like Ohio and
Pennsylvania.
Now, those miscues about employment, tax cuts, overtime and the
like are forgotten in the swirl of victory. By some. But not all.
And that may be why the White House is looking at former Texas
Senator Phil Gramm as an alternative to Snow at
Treasury.
Gramm has been quietly campaigning for the job, and has backers
all over Washington looking forward to the return of Dicky
Flatt, the Gramm constituent who inspired the former
Senator’s tax-cutting, anti-spending philosophy.
The White House isn’t talking about candidates for a job that
isn’t available, though talk in Washington is that Snow is on his
way out, perhaps sooner rather than later in a second wave of exits
that may be orchestrated in early spring, if not before.
“It isn’t that Snow hasn’t done a good job or a bad job,” says a
Senate staffer on the Finance Committee. “It’s this notion that the
Bush folks could have a stronger, more vocal advocate for issues
that are important. Snow was a great team player, but every
Treasury Secretary is now going to be compared to
[Robert] Rubin from Clinton’s
time. Snow just doesn’t compare. Gramm doesn’t either, but will be
a far better public face and voice for the Administration than
anyone else out there.”
Gramm would lend extra heft to a Bush Administration desperately
trying to build support for two critical issues it will press in
the coming years: overhauling and simplifying the tax code, and
partial privatization of Social Security accounts. Both issues were
important to Gramm in his Senate days, and his genial public face
and tough talk are thought to be a plus in making the public appeal
on these issues.
“The problem that the President has, and I think he knows it, is
that he doesn’t have people out there in the agencies who believe
wholeheartedly in the kind of change he wants to make,” says a
former White House staffer, now working as a lobbyist on the House
side. “You have senior people in the Social Security Administration
who do not want any form of private investment in the plan. They
will not be working for us. You have people in the Treasury
Department who do not support the President’s agenda, and will not
fight for it. He needs a few more fighters.”
HUSKER HUSTINGS
Another potential pickup for Bush’s Cabinet could be Democratic
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Before Thanksgiving,
Nelson was believed to have been offered the Secretary of
Agriculture post by the White House. Nelson did not deny the offer
was placed on the table, but would not discuss his thinking. Nelson
would probably temporarily become the second Democrat in the Bush
Cabinet. Current Transportation Secretary Norm
Mineta was the first, but his expected to leave in the
second wave of resignations down the road.
Nelson is facing a tough 2006 re-election race, particularly if
, as rumored, second-term congressman and former University of
Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne decides to
challenge him. Nelson’s move over to the Bush team would give
Republicans another Senate seat, with GOP Gov. Mike
Johanns making the appointment. Osborne would be the
favorite to fill that slot, giving the Republicans perhaps an early
pickup in the 2006 election cycle.
