Changing of the guard - in the East Wing

International Herald Tribune ^ | 3/26/2006 | Elisabeth Bumiller

[Palladin]

WASHINGTON

Well, at least one part of the White House is heeding calls for new blood. Not only is the pastry chef quitting this week, a close look at the first lady's office shows that she has replaced her entire high command after five years in charge of the East Wing.

Laura Bush is now on her second chief of staff, Anita McBride. She is on her second projects and policy director, Sonya Medina. She is on her third press secretary, Susan Whitson. She is on her second social secretary, Lea Berman.

On the residence staff, she is on her second executive chef, Cristeta Comerford. Not least, she is on a search for her third pastry chef now that Thaddeus DuBois has made his last strawberry-rhubarb fool, the dessert at last week's dinner celebrating Ben Franklin, at the White House.

Whitson, who has been Bush's press secretary for a little more than a year, attributed the changes in the 20-person staff to natural turnover, not disarray or misery. "I think there were a lot of different circumstances," Whitson said. As is typical, many of the changes occurred at the end of the first term, when people retired or left to make more money in corporate America.

But it is also true that Bush fired her first chef, Walter Scheib 3rd, who said he had failed to satisfy the first lady's "stylistic requirements." It is also true that Bush's first social secretary, Cathy Fenton, after she left the White House, branded the East Wing environment as "volatile."

[Palladin]

Laura Bush is making some changes in the East Wing. Her approval rating stays high at 82%.

[Palladin]

tr>

Laura says: "No more strawberry-rhubarb fool for you!"

Disclaimer: This photo is from a parody site.

[Palladin]

WHOA! Nobody wants to touch this thread with a ten-foot pole.

Queen Laura Rules!!