Card resigns as top White House aide; OMB chief to take over

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card resigned Tuesday, and President Bush named Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten to replace him.

Card leaves the Bush administration after more than five years as the top White House aide, making him one of the longest-serving chiefs of staff in history.

Card was legendary for the long hours he put in at the White House. "On most days, Andy is the first one to arrive in the West Wing and among the last to leave," Bush said Tuesday. But Card also was at times a lightning rod for controversial administration positions about the management of federal operations.

On the day President Bush was inaugurated, Jan. 20, 2001, Card issued a memo saying, "Effective immediately, no decision relating to hiring shall be made unless and until such decision is reviewed and approved by a department or agency head appointed by the president." At the time, an American Federation of Government Employees official called the move "a slap at the federal workforce."

In late 2002, Card distributed a memo making political appointees throughout the government eligible for cash bonuses. The move reinstated a practice abandoned in 1994 after senior political officials in the first Bush administration were given monetary awards before leaving office, prompting criticism that the practice had devolved into recognition of loyalty more than job performance.

In announcing his resignation Tuesday, Card praised federal employees and military service members. "I have watched as you have kept your oath to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution," Card told President Bush, "and I know that there are a lot of people who help you do that, and it starts with the White House staff, goes through everybody who serves in the executive branch of government, and most especially those young men and women who wear uniforms and help defend us."

Bolten moves from OMB back to the White House staff after more than two years at the helm of the Bush administration's management team.

"It's been the privilege of a lifetime to serve in your Cabinet as head of a great organization, the Office of Management and Budget," Bolten told Bush at the White House. "I'm deeply honored now by the opportunity to succeed Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff."

Prior to his time at OMB, Bolten was a deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president from the start of Bush's first term. He was said to symbolize the president's M.B.A. approach to managing government when he was sworn in at OMB in June 2003.

Bolten was the president's key representative on budget legislation and led the development of administration budget proposals sent to Congress from fiscal 2005 through fiscal 2007.

Prior to his time in the White House, Bolten was the policy director for the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. From 1994 to 1999, he was executive director of legal and government affairs at Goldman Sachs International in London.