Reply #10: Ron Suskind on Andy [View All]

[kskiska]

From Suskind's Esquire article:

(Andy speaking)

"My biggest concern? Want to know what it is? That the president will lose confidence in the White House staff. Because without her, we'll no longer be able to provide the president what he needs, what he demands. Karen and her family will be fine," he says. "It's the president I'm concerned about."

… He gets up and starts pacing the cobalt-blue wall-to-wall, kneading his hands. … "This, you know, will be seen as one of those crossroads, a moment of causation, and everything after this will be prefaced by 'After Karen Hughes left.' " Then he stops. He sees it clearly, and it's very personal. "She's leaving when the president has one of the highest approval ratings on record. From here, it can only go down. And when it does, you know who they're going to blame." He taps his chest. "They're gonna blame Andy Card!"

Hey Ab-bott! But wait, there's more:

"The key balance around here," he says, "has been between Karen and Karl Rove," the president's right hand and his left. Rove is much more the ideologue, a darling of the Right, who often swings a sharp sword of partisanship on matters of policy and politics. …

"That's what I've been doing from the start of this administration. Standing on the middle of the seesaw, with Karen on one side, Karl on the other, trying to keep it in balance. One of them just jumped off." He throws himself onto the couch to demonstrate, then he exhales again and talks about how he might restore balance. … "I'll need designees, people trusted by the president that I can elevate for various needs to balance against Karl." And then he ticks off a few—like Tucker Eskew, Dan Bartlett, Mary Matalin, Ari Fleischer, speechwriter Michael Gerson. "They are going to have to really step up, but it won't be easy. Karl is a formidable adversary."

more…
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2066689