> New York Times - December 2, 2002
>
> Ex-Aide Insists White House Puts Politics Ahead of Policy
>
> WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 - A former member of the Bush administration says
> in a magazine interview that the White House values politics over
> domestic policy, lacking both policy experts and an apparatus to
> support them, and has failed to achieve a "compassionate
> conservative" agenda.
[snip]
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/03/politics/03ADVI.html
Ex-Aide Apologizes For Remarks on Rove By THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 — John J. DiIulio Jr., a former Bush administration official, apologized today for quotations attributed to him in a magazine article about the power wielded in the White House by President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove.
Mr. DiIulio, who ran the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives until last year, was quoted in the January Esquire saying the White House spent far more time on politics than on policy and was being run by "Mayberry Machiavellis," chief among them Mr. Rove.
Mr. DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, issued a statement saying his criticisms were "groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and examples."
"I sincerely apologize and I am deeply remorseful," he said.
Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, earlier in the day called the article "baseless and groundless."
In the article, by Ron Suskind, Mr. DiIulio said Mr. Rove was a "very well-informed guy when it comes to certain domestic issues" but criticized White House domestic policy making for "reducing every issue to its simplest black and white terms for public consumption, then steering legislative initiatives or policy proposals as far right as possible."
-- John K. Taber
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