Not much of a shake-up

Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.: Last week, President Bush announced that longtime Chief of Staff Andrew Card was resigning. Most Americans barely batted an eyelash. Just another Capitol Hill insider ready to spend more time with his family, right? Perhaps. But Card's resignation is notable because he has been at Bush's side since the Texas governor slid into the Oval Office. For a president who fiercely values loyalty -- sometimes to a fault -- to recalibrate might suggest a willingness to change direction.
Officially, Card cited long workdays for his departure. This 58-year-old grandfather is a 24/7 kind of guy, and it's understandable that he's bushed. Card's defining moment was a whisper, when he entered a Florida classroom on Sept. 11, 2001, and leaned in to tell Bush that the nation was under attack.
Under attack
Since then, his boss' approval ratings have been pockmarked by strife in Iraq, the record federal deficit and a secret wiretapping program. Lately, House Republicans facing mid-term elections have been distancing themselves from the president over unrestrained spending and national security concerns like the ill-fated ports deal. Card's departure, in light of this pressure, does not look coincidental.
Card's replacement is White House budget director and Bush devotee Josh Bolten, 51. As shake-ups go, this registers low on the Richter scale compared to, say, Ronald Reagan's choice of Sen. Howard Baker to run the show after the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987. Nonetheless, it is change.