Senior staff members say that Gottesman, the son of an Austin real estate developer, is exceptionally close to Bush, who first got to know him as Jenna's boyfriend when Bush was an owner of the Texas Rangers. Last summer, in a Bush family interview with People magazine, Bush said that his twin daughters' taste in men was "excellent" and that they liked people who were "polite" and "not afraid of the old man, which is good."

Gottesman did offer some minor revelations last August on "Ask the White House," the administration's online question and answer forum. While Marvin Nicholson Jr., Sen. John Kerry's personal aide in the 2004 presidential campaign, provided the Democratic nominee with a daily wake-up call, Gottesman said that Bush is an "early-to-bed and early-to-rise kind of guy" and "wakes himself up."

Still, Gottesman usually has a room next to or close to Bush on presidential trips, be it at Buckingham Palace, in the dacha of President Vladimir V. Putin outside Moscow or aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

Gottesman also said on "Ask the White House," in response to a question about what is inside the bag he always carries on his shoulder, that it "just has hair products for me." The line was written in such a deadpan style that it appeared serious — Gottesman is teased at the White House for his perfect coif and immaculate good looks — but it was an inside joke.

In reality the bag holds Bush's speeches, notecards and trinkets like presidential cuff links and tie clips that Bush and Gottesman hand out on the road.

Hagin described Gottesman's sense of humor as wicked and said that the young aide sometimes blurted out after the president finished a major address, always within earshot of Bush, "I don't know, Hagin, I thought it was a great speech."