Bush says more staff changes to come

WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Tuesday nominated Trade Representative Rob Portman as the White House budget director, turning to a Washington insider and longtime friend as part of an effort to re-energize the administration and boost the president's record-low approval ratings.\nBush also selected Susan Schwab, the deputy trade representative, to move up to the top trade job, replacing Portman.\nBush said more changes are in the works under his new chief of staff, Joshua Bolten.\n"With a new man will come some changes," the president said. But he emphasized anew that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job is safe, despite calls for his resignation from a half dozen retired military commanders.\n"I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation," the president told reporters in the Rose Garden. "But I'm the decider and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."\nAt a Pentagon news conference later in the day, Rumsfeld said he hasn't considered resigning and added, "The president knows, as I know, there are no indispensable men ... He knows that I serve at his pleasure, and that's that."\nThe president noted that Washington is buzzing with rumors about an administration shake-up. Treasury Secretary John Snow is said to be on the verge of leaving, and Republicans outside the White House say they expect changes in the White House lobbying and communications shops.\n"I understand this is a matter of high speculation here in Washington," the president said. "It's the game of musical chairs, I guess you would say, that people love to follow."\nHe said he had given Bolten broad authority to make changes to strengthen the White House.\n"And of course he will bring different recommendations to me as to who should be here and who should not be here," Bush said.\nThe Senate must confirm Portman's nomination as director of the Office of Management and Budget and Schwab's nomination as U.S. trade representative.\nBush said that while Washington is fixated on gossip about personnel changes, the administration is dealing with problems such as soaring gasoline prices and the war on terror. \n"I'm concerned about higher gasoline prices," the president said. He added that the government has responsibility "to make sure that we watch very carefully and investigate possible price-gouging."\nJim Towey, head of the White House office of faith-based and community initiatives, resigned to become president of St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Towey's departure was not related to any White House shake-up.\nTuesday's appointments were the first major personnel changes since Bolten took over and said he wanted to re-energize and recharge Bush's troubled presidency. With the Iraq war in its fourth year, Bush's poll ratings are at their lowest point ever and Republicans are anxious about the November elections.\nBolten, at his first senior staff meeting Monday, pointed toward more personnel changes. He said that staffers who were thinking about leaving before the end of the year should go now.\nA former Republican congressman from Ohio, Portman is a confidant of Bush's and has broad experience in Washington.\nAs a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and as vice chairman of the Budget Committee, Portman forged bipartisan coalitions on legislation dealing with tax, trade and pension reform policy. It was just a year ago that Bush tapped Portman to succeed Robert Zoellick as his top trade negotiator.\nPortman had served in the House since winning a special election in 1993. He was highly regarded for his skills in forging compromises between Republicans and Democrats, traits that he will be able to use in his new job as budget director.\nPortman won praise during his brief time in the trade job for his role in winning passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement with six Latin American nations.\nThe pact was vigorously opposed by Democrats, who argued that it would open American workers to more unfair competition from low-wage nations. Portman, however, overcame that opposition by convincing enough wavering Republicans to support the agreement.