Firing Line.

Newsweek's cover story this week makes the case that, contrary to popular perception, President Bush is both a policy wonk and a hands-on manager. The president, according to the piece, decided last fall to fire "basically everybody" in his Cabinet, on the grounds that they were all burned out and overly accustomed to the perks of high office. And when the time came, he lowered the boom himself in a series of Oval Office meetings. Even when some Cabinet members, like a tearful HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, begged for other top jobs in the administration, Bush rebuffed them.