Bush confidant changing jobs
Posted on 01/14/2003 5:07:34 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Bush confidant changing jobs
Texan will try to streamline bureaucracy in post at OMB
01/14/2003
WASHINGTON – Clay Johnson, one of President Bush's oldest Texas friends and confidants, is changing jobs at the White House.
In a series of moves announced Monday, Mr. Johnson is leaving his post as White House personnel director to be the deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget.
He's replacing Mark Everson, who was named commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.
The new personnel director will be one of Mr. Johnson's deputies, Dina Powell.
Mr. Johnson's and Mr. Everson's new posts require Senate confirmation. Ms. Powell's does not.
Mr. Johnson, who went to prep school with Mr. Bush and roomed with him at Yale University, is the third of the seven Texans tapped by Mr. Bush for senior staff jobs in the West Wing to move on.
In the summer, counselor Karen Hughes returned to Austin, where she continues to advise the president as a consultant to the Republican National Committee. She was replaced by her deputy, communications director Dan Bartlett, another Texan.
Cabinet secretary Albert Hawkins has also returned to Austin, to direct the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
The four remaining West Wing Texans are political strategist Karl Rove, who will oversee Mr. Bush's re-election campaign; domestic policy adviser Margaret Spellings; staff secretary Harriet Miers; and legal counsel Al Gonzales.
Mr. Johnson was director of Mr. Bush's presidential transition and served as his executive assistant when he was governor.
In his new job, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said, Mr. Johnson will oversee a streamlining of the federal bureaucracy and its technology.
"Often in the Office of Management and Budget much of the focus is on the B, in the budget," Mr. Fleischer said. "This a real return to a focus on the M, as in management."
E-mail bhillman@dallasnews.com
He has a page on the WH site.
Thanks, my FRiend. I always look forward to trimming the scum. After 1 year, 51 weeks you would think this would have already been done. Oh, yeah...what is it Bush said he wanted to bring to Washington? A new tone?...
or something like that...
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