Ex-Bush Loyalists: Where Are They Now? (Page 2)

This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.

Law and Orders

One Bush administration lawyer who did land a job with a law firm was Gonzales's successor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey (2007-2009), who became a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, a firm "offering sophisticated legal services," and which "places the highest value on collaboration and interdisciplinary cooperation in order to provide clients with seamless representation across practice areas and across continents."

Tommy Thompson, Bush's secretary of health and human services from 2001-2005, is now a partner with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where he "focuses on developing solutions for clients in the health care industry, as well as for companies doing business in the public sector." Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security from 2005-2009, is serving as "senior of counsel," and a "member of the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group" at the firm of Covington & Burling.

Meanwhile, Harriet Miers, who served Bush from 2001-2007 as staff secretary, deputy chief of staff, and counsel to the president--and whose Supreme Court bid crashed and burned in 2005--returned to Locke, Lord, Bissell & Liddell in May 2007 to serve as a member of the law firm's "Litigation and Public Policy sections." That firm is also home to Karin Torgerson, a partner who served as special assistant to President George W. Bush, one of several White House positions she held from 2003-2005.

Speak Easy

In addition to his book-writing duties, former President Bush recently signed on with the Washington Speakers Bureau, which already represents his wife. The Bureau is to arrange lucrative speeches for him worldwide. In fact, just last month, the New York Times reported that the former president had "earned more than an estimated $150,000" to "discuss national and international policy" alongside fellow former President Bill Clinton at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.

Together the Bushes joined a speakers' roster of former administration heavyweights, including Richard Armitage (deputy secretary of state, 2001-2005), John Bolton (US ambassador to the United Nations, 2005-2006), Andrew Card (White House chief of staff, 2001-2006), Ari Fleischer (White House press secretary, 2001-2003), Michael Mukasey, Colin Powell (secretary of state, 2001-2005), Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge (secretary of homeland security, 2003-2005), Donald Rumsfeld, and John Snow (secretary of the treasury, 2003-2006), as well as Bush family consigliere James Baker III.

Meanwhile, at Leading Authorities, another top-of-the-line speakers bureau, the list of ex-Bush loyalists includes Dan Bartlett (counselor to the president, 2002-2007), Christopher Cox (chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, 2005-2009), Ed Gillespie (counselor to the president, 2007-2009), Porter Goss (director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 2005-2006), Stephen Hadley (national security adviser, 2005-2009), Michael Hayden (director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 2006-2009), Keith Hennessey (director of the National Economic Council, 2007-2009), Dana Perino (White House press secretary, 2007-2009) and Margaret Spellings (secretary of education, 2005-2009).

A third lecturers' stable, the Leigh Bureau, boasts John Negroponte who served Bush as ambassador to the United Nations, ambassador to Iraq, director of national intelligence, and deputy secretary of state.

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