11/4: Texas fold 'em

A.C.: With all the talk of whether Karl Rove should leave, why have we forgotten about Chief of Staff Andrew Card? How can he skate free given all of the bad publicity of the last 60 days?

D.L.: A Chief of Staff has not been employed this long since the Truman administration.

E.T.: How did W find him?

D.L.: Card was H.W.'s deputy chief of staff so he's been coordinating Bush White Houses for nearly 9 years.

A.C.: I hate to say it, but W needs to implement the Clinton model. Clinton changed his Chief of Staff for every phase of his terms. When the emphasis was restoring order to a chaotic White House, he hired David Gergen as a deputy Chief of Staff because he had worked in the Reagan White House. When the emphasis was on budget negotiations, he brought in business guru Erskine Bowles.

D.L.: You've got to replace the cut flowers to keep the place smelling fresh. No matter how well intentioned W's inner circle might be, hubris is hard to avoid when you've been consulting the president for 5 years.

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