WASHINGTON — The day before his inauguration, George W. Bush pointed to Karen Hughes at a staff meeting and told his other top advisers, "I don't want any important decision made without her in the room."
Bush's order was strictly enforced. No major presidential conclusion, event or public utterance has escaped the eyes and ears of Hughes — perhaps the most influential woman ever to have served a president.
But now the White House counselor is leaving the room. She ends an 18-month run at the White House Monday, creating a Texas-sized vacuum in the orbit of advisers.
"She won't be here every single day to hear every single thing that's going on in the White House, which she does now," first lady Laura Bush said.
Hughes has been the president's friend and alter ego, the aide he most trusts to sense what moves voters, particularly working women and mothers. She finishes his sentences. She laughs loudest at his jokes. She enforces his demand for discipline, rooting out aides who leak to the media or claim credit that could go to the president.
Hughes still plans to advise Bush from her home in Austin, Texas. A contract with the Republican Party could make the work more lucrative than her government salary of $145,000 a year.
At the White House, however, her departure threatens to undo a delicate balance of power.
Karl Rove, whose portfolio includes all things political and policy, will face less competition for Bush's ear — a point that worries some White House officials and GOP strategists.
Chief of Staff Andrew Card told Esquire Magazine he needs other aides to balance Rove, "but it won't be easy. Karl is a formidable adversary."