Is Leavitt Attempting a 'Power Grab'?
08/27/2012 | 629 views | 0 0 comments | 3 3 recommendations | email to a friend | print
The Daily Caller's Matt K. Lewis says an internal power struggle is brewing within Mitt Romney's transition operation -- a battle pitting Romney's Boston political machine against a Salt Lake City-based "Mormon mafia" led by Mike Leavitt and Bob Bennett.

Leavitt, for example, has brought in former Utah Sen. Bob Bennett, who was ousted from office over his moderate positions. Bennett has publicly said Leavitt “would make a great chief of staff in the White House.” (This emphasis toward a business philosophy of governance fits well with Romney’s recently stated goal of bringing “corporate order to the West Wing” — and, along with that, a lot of private-sector people into the administration.) One source says he’d be more comfortable with a few more “Haley Barbours” involved.

The Mormon network, and the suggestion of favoritism, is rarely discussed publicly — but it is  (quietly) a major bone of contention. “They are tribal and they help each other out,” says one source of the LDS members on the transition team. “There’s nothing wrong with that — but that’s what’s happening here.”

(See also related Daily Caller story.)

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May 22, 2013 | 279 views | 0 0 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend | print

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