Mr. Bush complained: "It's not on until 11, and Andy Card will yell at me if I'm not in bed by then."

"He was the disciplinarian," remembered Andy Card, another aide.

Andy Card pushed Mr. Lindsey off the sled of state.

Andy Card, Bush's chief of staff, said as much in November in a television interview, as he described efforts to prepare Bush for Jan. 20.

Andy Card was also present for this meeting which took place later that evening.

"He said, 'I support it' and turned to Andy Card and said, 'Andy, you get it done.' "

"He thinks Andy Card is a nice, good man," one person said.

"This convention really is about George Bush," said Andy Card, general co-chairman and chief conceptualizer of the $63 million event.

But then I read that Andy Card was asked, well, why did this issue come before Washington and the country now?

Andy Card gushed to Tim Russert that W. had "read documents, I mean, very thick documents, about the stem cell issue."