Ex-Bush aide may fill in for Crocker

  • By VIMAL PATEL

  • Posted: Thursday, June 9, 2011 7:00 a.m.
  • Text size: A A A


President George W. Bush's ex-chief of staff has been on campus this week meeting with top Texas A&M leaders, along with faculty and staff, about serving as acting dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service.


Andrew Card met with Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin and Provost Karan Watson to discuss the position. The person who fills it would be a placeholder for Dean Ryan Crocker while he serves as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.


Crocker, a storied diplomat and dean of the Bush School since early 2010, was asked to serve in the new role by President Barack Obama in late April. His U.S. Senate confirmation hearing began Wednesday.


President George H.W. Bush, whose presidential library is on the Texas A&M campus and was instrumental in Crocker's decision to come to Texas A&M, has said through a spokesman that it would be his "great desire" to see Crocker return to A&M.


Administrators within the Bush School noted there was precedent for serving the U.S. in a diplomatic role while still remaining affiliated -- though not on the payroll -- of a university. Henry Kissinger did so at Harvard, as did Condoleezza Rice at Yale.


An "interim" dean is temporarily in charge pending selection of a permanent leader, while an "acting" dean assumes the responsibilities of the post while the dean is unavailable.


Texas A&M University spokesman Jason Cook said discussions are taking place regarding what would happen if Crocker is confirmed by the Senate.


"Mr. Card is one individual who we have contacted in order to gauge his interest in the position during Dean Crocker's absence should he be confirmed ... ," Cook wrote in an email. "At this point, our next steps are dependent on the will of the U.S. Senate and the confirmation process."


Charles Hermann, the director of the Bush School's master's program in international affairs, declined to confirm any conversations regarding the acting dean position. He said the school wants to continue aggressively pursuing fundraising and development.


"That tilts toward the kind of person who would have a robust set of contacts among potential donors and, of course, a strong encouragement and endorsement of the 41st president," Hermann said.


The school, one of Texas A&M's 10 colleges, has more than 220 master's students and 40 faculty members.


Card, who famously whispered into the 43rd president's ear on Sept. 11, 2001, that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, spoke at the Bush Library in October about his most memorable day as Bush's top adviser: The day the president gripped a bullhorn and spoke to rescue workers amid rubble of 9/11.


In addition, Card was President Ronald Reagan's special assistant for intergovernmental affairs and secretary of transportation under the elder Bush, the namesake of the Bush School.


He also served as head of the younger Bush's White House Iraq Group, a circle of top insiders whose job was to market the 2003 U.S. invasion to the public. The primary stated purpose of the war was to find former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. They were never found.

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