Tom Baldwin, Washington Correspondent of The Times, explains the latest moves in the White House shake-up and why they are so badly needed

"Karl Rove has not been sidelined or demoted. He quite clearly remains absolutely at the heart of the Bush Administration as the most trusted and influential adviser to the President.

"What appears to have happened is that he has returned to the role he has traditionally played with Mr Bush, rather than the aggrandized role he was given after the 2004 election. Essentially, he will be less involved in overseeing policy and more involved in what he is really good at, which is directing the general political strategy of the administration.

"He may now be taking a slightly lower profile. This may be politically convenient, as Mr Rove is potentially in some trouble after he was named as a subject of the Fitzgerald investigation (a special prosecutor who is investigating the alleged leak of a CIA agent's name by the White House).

"The change in Mr Rove's role is also designed to fit in with the larger shake-up going on at the White House. It is part of the fine-tuning involved in the five-year service of the Administration, where some parts - like Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary - are being discarded, and others are being polished up.

"Mr McClellan's departure is not unexpected. He has become a living symbol of the problems that this administration has been having in communicating its message. He has been an extraordinarily ham-fisted, wooden, apologetic, disaster-area of a spokesman. He sits there, just taking body blow after body blow, sweating and getting pink in the face.

"There will be further changes. Most people think that John Snow, the Treasury Secretary, will be among those to go.

"It is all about trying to reinvigorate an Administration which is looking tired, if not actually dead. They have two and a half years to go, but they look exhausted, politically and physically. They have lost their touch and their political antennae.

"They can't see trouble coming, and it hits them smack in the face. They can't get up off the floor. They used to just keep winning, but now they have been on a very long losing streak, from Hurricane Katrina to the Dubai ports deal, via corruption among Republicans in Congress and the "Scooter" Libby affair. It is looking very, very shaky.

"This is what politicians do when they are having a bad time - they reshuffle their team."

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