Bush vows not to be distracted by political problems

Found this off CNN.Com:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush, jarred by investigations of White House officials and congressional leaders and an uproar over his Supreme Court nomination, said Thursday there was "some background noise here, a lot of chatter" complicating the work of his administration.

But he said, "The American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."

Bush's comments, at a Rose Garden news conference with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, reflected the administration's argument that its agenda is moving forward despite a growing list of problems.

At the same time, he said, "There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining."

When the president says there's a lot of "background noise here, a lot of chatter," and then says the American people expect him to do his job, he's trying to convey a sense of strong leadership and that his staff is not consumed with the Valerie Plamegate scandal. The unfortunate thing is that the Bush White House is consumed with the Valerie Plamegate scandal. Everyone is waiting to see whether special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will pop up with indictments against Karl Rove or Scooter Libby--or even Dick Cheney. Bush's selection of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has gotten a ton of criticism from his hard-line base, saying that she's not conservative enough. Of course, Miers didn't help herself with her incomplete answers to the Senate's questionnaire.

What you're seeing here is that the White House no longer has any control over the news events. Instead of projecting news that is favorable to its policies and positions, the White House is instead scrambling to react to news events that are spiraling out of its control. The White House has to react to any indictments that Fitzgerald may serve against Rove, Libby, or other Bush officials. The White House has to react to criticisms against Miers. The Miers story should have been a story that could be controlled by the Bush PR people--similar to John Roberts. Unfortunately there, Bush chose the wrong person for the wrong job--in terms of PR. Hurricanes' Libby, Rita, and Wilma were total disasters that were exaberated by the incompetence of Bush cronies placed into top FEMA jobs. And the DeLay / Jack Abramoff scandal certainly doesn't help the GOP or the Bush administration indirectly. These cascading news events just pile up, one after another, into a snowball effect where it is impossible for any White House PR team to recapture the initiative.

It is going to be a long three years.