NYT: White House Memo
Two Cases Are Test for Bush’s Unwavering Loyalty
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: April 21, 2007
(Tim Sloan/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images)
Paul D. Wolfowitz, the World Bank president, is facing calls to resign.
(Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is taking bipartisan criticism.
WASHINGTON, April 20 — Time and time again, President Bush has stood by his most embattled but loyal lieutenants despite loud calls for their heads, at times defying the established physics of Washington (rapidly diminishing support in one’s own party times the number of instances in which one has failed to convincingly explain away accusations of incompetence or malfeasance equals the certainty of rapid resignation).
But Mr. Bush’s ability to turn aside that kind of pressure is now facing a serious test as he confronts what to do about Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Paul D. Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank.
How Mr. Bush moves to resolve the situations is being watched closely in Democratic and Republican circles for what it says about his standing in the capital’s new power dynamic, as a late-term president with low approval ratings and a hostile and increasingly assertive Congress.
They are two very different cases in two very different worlds: Mr. Wolfowitz faces questions about favoritism toward his girlfriend; Mr. Gonzales is dealing with bipartisan criticism about his competence and questions about whether the Justice Department dismissed several federal prosecutors for political reasons.
In each case Mr. Bush is standing by a loyalist with an evaporating base of support and a serious challenge to his credibility even among Republicans. And, two Republicans close to the administration said, in the case of Mr. Gonzales, even some of Mr. Bush’s close aides think that his resignation would best serve the administration but do not find a like-minded view from the president, who is personally close to the attorney general.
Yet, in a mark of his dwindling political capital, Mr. Bush has so far left Mr. Gonzales and Mr. Wolfowitz mostly to fend for themselves, pledging his continued confidence in them, but in each case saying it would fall to them to build back support among their core constituencies. And neither, to say the least, has made any visible progress....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/21/washington/21memo.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1177215462-3ZXNtr7wZQ+zbQRYgBExTA