Before the 2000 election, Karl Rove opposed the naming of Dick Cheney as vice-president, according to a new book on the Bush administration.
The Washington Post reports that in "Dead Certain: The Presidency of George Bush," author Robert Draper writes that Rove told Bush, "Selecting Daddy's top foreign-policy guru ran counter to message. It was worse than a safe pick -- it was needy."
In other revelations in “Dead Certain:”
When Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, expressed concerns about the Harriet Miers’ selection for the Supreme Court, he was "shouted down" and subsequently muted his objections. Meanwhile, writes Draper, other advisers did not realize the outcry the nomination would cause within the president's conservative political base. Bush was "gassed" after an 80-minute bike ride at his Crawford, Tex. ranch on the day before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and was mostly silent during a subsequent video briefing from then-FEMA Director Michael D. Brown and other top officials making preparations for the storm. During a private dinner at the White House to discuss how to bolster the presidency, seven advisers voted to oust secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, incoming chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten, the outgoing chief, Andrew H. Card Jr., and Ed Gillespie, then an outside adviser and now White House counselor. Bush raised his hand along with three others who wanted Rumsfeld to stay, including Rove and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley. There are also fresh disclosures about the behind-the-scenes infighting at the White House and that by the spring of 2006 some close to the president had concluded that "the White House management structure had collapsed."
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