TIME:Bush Goes Back to the Future

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The continued shuffling at the White House so far signals one sure thing — President Bush finally has a real chief of staff — and one unmistakeable trend: the 41ers are back.

For most of the first five and a half years in office, titles notwithstanding, he didn't. Andy Card was many things: family friend, trusted aid, personal assistant. But he was never a chief of staff in the Jim Baker/Ken Duberstein/Leon Panetta mold. Those men played a different hand: they stood at the cross section of policy and politics, managed the process beneath them and teed up the crucial decisions for their boss. Outside of national security matters, they did not share the job with anyone.

Bush opposed that model, having learned the lessons of his father's experience with John Sununu perhaps a little too well. The family lore holds that 41 was misserved by Sununu, who often took as hard a line with the president's allies as his enemies, and many in the party believe that it was George W. Bush who fired him (both myths are a little at odds with the real story). But in any case, the strong chief model was still much in disfavor inside Bushland even by 2000. No strong chief of staff for me, said 43.

It already appears that Bolten is much more the traditional chief in manner and method, and so it will be interesting to see what that means for the way Bush decides things. Bolten got a lot of attention earlier this week when he called on all Bush hands to declare now whether they want to leave or stay for the duration. This makes good sense; Bush has to calculate how to use what chits he has left to see which nominees through Senate confirmations hearings. It's worth noting that Card had done the same thing a month or so ago, a Card ally explains. The difference is this time the call is being heeded.

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