Bush's Hands-Off Management Style Contributes to Political Woes

By Edwin Chen and Holly Rosenkrantz

March 19 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's insular management system, which values loyalty and old Texas ties while discouraging dissent, may be at the root of the political misfortunes undermining his presidency.

Bush -- once hailed as an ``MBA president'' skilled in the art of delegating -- has delegated to the point of detachment, some political scientists and presidential management experts say. His isolation and reliance on unquestioning loyalists have contributed to the image of a president who's out of the loop on vital decisions.

``The problem isn't the staff,'' said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based policy research organization. ``It lies with the president.''

Ornstein recalled a weeklong cruise he took with Bush in 1990, during which they discussed management issues. Bush, he said, talked about his preference for delegating duties to subordinates and holding them accountable. Since then, Ornstein has concluded that ``the lessons he learned, at the Harvard Business School and as head of an oil company, he has not followed through on.''

The second-term housecleaning that installed budget director Josh Bolten as chief of staff and saw the return to full-time duties of strategist Karl Rove has failed to reinvigorate the White House. The administration has been rocked by political setbacks, most recently the flap over the roles of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Rove in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Implosion

That flap followed the implosion of Bush's plan to overhaul the Social Security retirement system; the botched response to Hurricane Katrina; and the withdrawal of White House Counsel Harriet Miers's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. More recently, the White House has seen the conviction of former top vice presidential aide Lewis Libby and a scandal over substandard treatment of wounded military veterans at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The firestorm over the U.S. attorneys spotlights Bush's reliance on Texas advisers. E-mails show Miers, who has left the government, was involved in the ousters; congressional Democrats are threatening to subpoena Rove over his role; and Gonzales is fighting calls for his resignation.

Some former top Bush aides say the president has sent signals that he tunes out of much of the daily ebb and flow of governing.

In ``The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill,'' the former Treasury secretary described an hour-long meeting with the president on economic policy during which ``the president said nothing.''

Uncurious

That caused O'Neill, who was forced out in December 2002, to wonder ``if the president didn't know the questions to ask, or did he know and just not want to know the answers?''

John Dilulio, the former director of Bush's office of faith- based initiatives, is also quoted in the book as saying that during his eight months at the White House he heard ``not three meaningful, substantive policy discussions'' on what Bush touted as a major priority.

Others describe White House meetings and events as highly scripted, with pre-determined outcomes.

During the spring 2004 scandal over U.S. mistreatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Bush was kept in the dark until photographs of abused Iraqis appeared in the New Yorker magazine. The president later chastised then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for failing to give him early warning.

`Sweeping'

Even as Texas governor, Bush was ``sweeping in his acts of delegation,'' said Fred I. Greenstein, a professor of politics at Princeton University, in New Jersey.

Bush halved the time, to 15 minutes, for reviewing death penalty cases. When a report was issued on a 1999 accident that killed 12 Texas A&M students, Bush ``read neither the report nor its executive summary, leaving it to his aides'' to summarize the conclusions, Greenstein wrote in a study.

The consequences of a hands-off style are no academic matter, Greenstein said. ``The danger is somebody who doesn't explore issues in depth, and relies on subordinates, may end up with a misguided mission.''

Bush can be direct about his desire to be left alone. Even when biking with acquaintances, he asks them to lag behind -- so he can enjoy at least the illusion of solitude.

An Uninterrupted Ride

No aides interrupted Bush as he was riding at a suburban Maryland wildlife center on May 11, 2005, when a small plane triggered a terror alert by straying into a no-fly zone near the White House, forcing its evacuation.

While current top White House aides including Bolten declined interview requests, Andrew Card, Bolten's predecessor as chief of staff, says Bush is neither isolated nor disengaged.

``People need to respect that only the toughest of decisions are made in the Oval Office,'' he said in an interview. ``He rightly trusts others to make the other decisions, so he can focus on presidential decisions.''

Earlier in his term, Bush's penchant for reserving his energy for top-tier decisions and pushing the rest down to his aides led many to consider him a refreshing change from President Bill Clinton, who was often involved in the minutiae of government.

A December 12, 2002, USA Today article about Bush was headlined ``MBA president's success leaves Dems out in the cold,'' and hailed Bush's focus on the big picture.

Misfortunes

Today, after watching the course of the Iraq war and the chain of misfortunes that have befallen the 60-year-old president, many political experts say it's this style that is causing problems for Bush.

``The greatest hazard in the job of president is being isolated, because you are operating behind a barrier of staff, aides, and Secret Service,'' said Leon Panetta, a former staff chief for Clinton.

``The only way to stay in touch with reality is through your chief of staff -- but also through your own desire to know what the hell is going on,'' Panetta said.

Ken Duberstein, President Ronald Reagan's former chief of staff, said that ``you have to have people in the White House who respect not only the president but the presidency and are willing to be reality therapists.''

Some say Bush's detached style has created a vacuum at the White House that vests too much authority in the hands of a few trusted aides.

Bush ``is light on the early-warning systems other presidents have used to avoid being blind-sided,'' said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas in Austin. ``This is why he has been slow to grasp and contain the damage.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Chen in Washington at echen32@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 19, 2007 00:26 EDT

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