Bush Taps Portman As New Budget Director

President Bush introduces U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman as his nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The psudo-shake-up has just begun. This is from Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday nominated Trade Representative Rob Portman (news, bio, voting record) as the White House budget director, turning to a Washington insider and longtime friend as part of an effort to re-energize the administration and boost the president's record-low approval ratings.

Bush also selected Susan Schwab, the deputy trade representative, to move up to the top trade job, replacing Portman.

Bush said more changes are in the works under his new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten.

"With a new man will come some changes," the president said. But he emphasized anew that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job is safe, despite calls for his resignation from a half dozen retired military commanders.

"I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation," the president told reporters in the Rose Garden. "But I'm the decider and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

The president noted that Washington is buzzing with rumors about an administration shake-up. Treasury Secretary John Snow is said to be on the verge of leaving, and Republicans outside the White House say they expect changes in the White House lobbying and communications shops.

"I understand this is a matter of high speculation here in Washington," the president said. "It's the game of musical chairs, I guess you would say, that people love to follow."

So let's see now....Washington insider, longtime friend of the Bushies, trade representative--yes, he's the perfect choice to market as a shake-up, while not rocking the White House boat. Mr. President, it is the perfect game of musical chairs--people love to follow you because they know they're going to be rewarded with perks and corrupt cronyism. We've got Michael "Heckuva Job Brownie" Brown making a complete mess of FEMA, or Harriet Miers trying to ogle her way up to the Supreme Court. Or how about the former White House procurement official, David Safavian, who was charged in covering up the political favors he gave to lobbyists? Remember David Sanborn, who was tapped by President Bush to run the U.S. Maritime Administration, and a former executive of Dubai Ports that was to take control of shipping in over six American ports? Mr. President, if you really want to make a change in the White House, bring someone in who is a complete outsider--who doesn't have any political or personal ties to the White House, or the Bush family. Try bringing someone in, who didn't give millions in campaign contributions, or ogle and fawn over you like a rock-star groupie. But I doubt that you have the intellectual capacity, the will, or even the cajones to take back your presidency from the religious wing-nuts, the neocons, and Dick Cheney. And instead of bringing someone in, who can shake up the White House, and bring real changes that can solve these multitude of foreign and domestic problems that you have created over these past five years, we are again subjected to the White House marketing of another fake charlatan, and more empty promises of change.

Time to re-arrange the deck chairs again.