Dan Bartlett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dan Bartlett in 2005.

Daniel Joseph Bartlett (born June 1, 1971) was a Counselor to the President in the U.S. presidential administration of George W. Bush. The position was previously held by Karen Hughes, who vacated the post in 2002. On June 1, 2007, he announced his resignation and that he would be leaving the White House on July 5, 2007. He was replaced by Ed Gillespie.

1 Personal
2 Career
3 Controversies
4 External links

[edit] Personal

Bartlett is a graduate of Rockwall High School (class of 1989) and the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in political science.

Bartlett married Allyson Elizabeth Sikes (born 1975) in 2000, and the two have three sons. The Bartletts reside in Texas.

[edit] Career

Bartlett worked on Bush's first successful campaign for Governor of Texas in 1994. He was appointed as Deputy to the Policy Director in the Governor's office in Texas, and was Issues Director for Bush's 1998 gubernatorial re-election campaign.

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bartlett was the Director of Rapid Response for Bush for President; he later worked as a deputy to presidential advisor Karen Hughes before being named White House Communications Director. On January 5, 2005, the White House announced that Bartlett would assume the role of Counselor to the President, which allows him to focus more broadly on strategic communication and the formulation of policy. He has also worked for Karl Rove's political consulting firm. On June 1, 2007, Bartlett announced his resignation as Counsel to the President. On October 28, 2007, Public Strategies Inc announced the addition of Dan Bartlett to the firm in the role of senior strategist.[1]

[edit] Controversies

Following the July 6, 2003, editorial by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Bartlett (with Ari Fleischer) pushed reporters to pursue who in the CIA sent him to Niger, but stopped short of revealing that his wife worked for the agency.[2]

There was controversy at the end of 2007, when Dan Bartlett, during an interview article published in the January '08 Texas Monthly, implied some conservative bloggers, such as Hugh Hewitt, were unfiltered mouthpieces for the GOP and Bush White House. The main quote was: "I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on." [3] The interview and article was by Evan Smith. On December 21, 2007, it was reported the Republican Party of Texas Called for the resignation of Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith over an unrelated issue. [4]. Bartlett has frequently played a role as point man for the Administration when responding to and attacking critics; for example, he appeared almost hourly on various media outlets in May 2008, casting aspersions on the contentions raised by Scott McCllelan in his book "What Happened" that the Administration had repeatedly "shaded the truth" in connection with justifying the Iraq war, and describing the role that various Administration officials played in the Valerie Plame leak case. He is quite deft at appearing to be the objective voice of reason, while nevertheless communicating the daily "talking points" representing the Administration's unofficial position; the extent to which his comments frequently closely paraphrase those of other Administration officials or former officials ranges far beyond mere coincidence.