White House musical chairs: Miers resigns from White House counsel, Negroponte moves from Intel czar to No. 2 position at State

This is going to be a busy day for news at the Bush White House. We're seeing another game of musical chairs going on here. I'm going to start with this Washington Post story, titled Miers Resigns As White House Counsel:

WASHINGTON -- Harriet Miers, President Bush's failed Supreme Court nominee and longtime adviser, on Thursday submitted her resignation as White House counsel.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president reluctantly accepted her resignation, which takes effect Jan. 31. He said a search for a successor is under way.

White House counsel Harriet Miers is seen in this October 20, 2005 file photo in Washington. Miers, whose nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court justice was withdrawn, has resigned effective Jan. 31, the White House said on Thursday. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES)

Bush nominated Miers in October 2005 to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but she dropped out under fire from conservatives who questioned her qualifications and would not support her.

Asked why she was leaving, Snow said: "Basically, she has been here six years."

He said Miers, 61, a loyal adviser to the president for years, has been having conversations with White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten about leaving for some time and both agreed that it was time for a change at the White House office of legal counsel.

[....]

Snow said Miers' departure did not signal the beginning of an exodus of senior officials after six bruising years at the White House. Asked if other officials were poised to go, Snow said, "I'm aware of none and anticipate none."

You have to love this Tony Snow quote of how Bush officials are not leaving after six years--Sorry, no exodus here! They may not be leaving the administration, but they are certainly shifting their chairs here. We have Miers leaving the White House today, and just yesterday the news broke that intelligence czar John Negroponte is moving to the State Department. This is from the New York Times, titled Intelligence Chief to Shift to Deputy State Dept. Post:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 — John D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department’s second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday.

Mr. Negroponte will fill a critical job that has been vacant for months, and he is expected to play a leading role in shaping policy in Iraq. But his transfer is another blow to an intelligence community that has seen little continuity at the top since the departure of George J. Tenet in 2004 as director of central intelligence.

Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte steps to the podium to deliver remarks at Georgetown University in Washington in this Friday, Feb. 17, 2006 file photo. Negroponte will resign after 20 months in the job to become the deputy secretary of state, two U.S. government officials said Wednesday night, Jan. 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Mr. Negroponte had been brought to the intelligence job to help restore credibility and effectiveness to agencies whose reputations were badly damaged by failures related to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and mistaken prewar assessments of Iraq’s illicit weapons. He has maintained a low public profile but provides Mr. Bush with a briefing most mornings.

President Bush has hailed the establishment of the intelligence post as an essential step in helping prevent another terrorist attack. On paper, the director of national intelligence outranks the deputy secretary of state, raising questions about why the White House would seek — and why Mr. Negroponte would agree to — the shift.

The move, expected to be announced this week, comes as the president prepares to announce a new strategy for Iraq as sectarian violence worsens there and approval ratings sag at home.

The administration has had great difficulty filling the State Department position. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked several people who have turned down the post, according to senior State Department officials.

But administration officials interviewed on Wednesday would not say whether Mr. Negroponte was moving because the White House saw him as uniquely qualified for the diplomatic post, or because President Bush was dissatisfied with his performance as intelligence chief, or whether it was a combination of the two.

Mr. Negroponte has served as ambassador to the United Nations and to Iraq, and administration officials say Ms. Rice was trying to recruit him to bring more Iraq expertise to her office.

Administration officials from two different agencies said Wednesday that the leading candidate to become the new intelligence chief is J. Michael McConnell, a retired vice admiral who led the National Security Agency from 1992 to 1996. Admiral McConnell was head of intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Gen. Colin L. Powell during the first Persian Gulf war, in 1991.

Something is going on here that I just can't put my finger on. Are the rats leaving this sinking Bush ship? Is there a power struggle going on in the Bush administration between the PNAC neocons and the newly arriving real politick people who served under Poppy Bush--think Robert Gates replacing Don Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary. Are we seeing another buildup of a siege mentality in the Bush White House--especially now that the Democrats are opening the new session of the 110th Congress, where investigations into the Bush scandals will be starting soon? I would even have to wonder if there is a connection between Negroponte's move to State and Bush's upcoming announcement of increasing American troops in the Iraq war, considering his "expertise" on Iraq that Secretary of State Condi Rice has never had.

Something is going on in the Bush White House. We'll just have to wait for more to come.