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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Another Bushie for McCain

By Ken Herman | Thursday, December 21, 2006, 11:09 AM

mc1_02.jpg Add Steve Schmidt, a former top aide in the George W. Bush White House, to the list of supporters of the current president who think Arizona Sen. John McCain should be the next president.

The McCain camp today announced that Schmidt will serve as a senior adviser to McCain “should he decide to run for president in 2008.” Schmidt apparently believes he should.

(The McCain Exploratory Committee logo is shown above. Pretty simple now, but seems like they’ve left some space to add “2008” or “for president” when the exploring is over.)

Credentials: Schmidt most recently was campaign manager for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful re-election bid. Previously, he was a deputy assistant to the president and counselor to the vice president. His tasks included helping to shepherd Bush Supreme Court appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito through the confirmation process.

In the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign, Schmidt helped run the rapid-response communications effort.

Schmidt likes McCain because he is a “common-sense conservative with a unique brand of leadership that will unite Americans of many different stripes.”

McCain likes Schmidt because his “professionalism, strategic vision and politican acumen have brought success to nearly every organization he’s been a part of.”

“Nearly” every organization?

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IG Gig Extended

By Ken Herman | Thursday, December 21, 2006, 10:25 AM

bowenPortrait2.jpg

One former Austinite has extended the government job of another former Austinite.

President Bush has signed into law a measure that keeps the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in business for an extra year or so.

The office, headed by former Bush aide Stuart Bowen Jr., had been scheduled to close this year. Congress, apparently convinced that a lot more inspector generaling needs to be done in Iraq, voted to keep the office operating until 10 months after 80 percent of the money in the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund has been spent. That should be sometime in late 2008.

Bowen was a top aide to Bush in the Texas Governor’s Office. In the White House, he served as a deputy assistant and associate counsel to the president. He became the special inspector general for Iraq in October 2004.

His office has produced several reports documenting fraud and waste in Iraq. The reports are available at www.sigir.mil.

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