Word: califano
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...nervous, fidgety man, not really short (5 ft. 10 in.), but round (182 Ibs.), Califano was linked by capital fashion watchers with the worst-dressed men in Washington. He wears blue button-down shirts, narrow ties and baggy pants. They sag because he recently weighed as much as 195 Ibs.?a heft reached when, observing his own well-publicized warnings against smoking, he stopped inhaling three packs of cigarettes a day. Instead, he began eating four daily meals and ballooned. Now on a diet, backed by a 45-min. noon-hour jog around the Mall, he has ignored...
Because of his rambunctious style, Califano is a tempting target for nicknames. He has been called "Crazy Califano," "Mad, Mad Joe," "the Dynamo".and "the Boy Earthquake." He has also been described as "a loose cannon," and, contrarily, "a torpedo?point him in one direction and he goes." When the tobacco lobby, outraged by Califano's drive to keep young people from smoking, printed bumper stickers proclaiming, CALIFANO IS DANGEROUS TO MY HEALTH, some of the Secretary's subordinates proudly pasted them on their office walls...
...Califano reaches his office by 7 a.m. If others are not at work by 8 a.m., they may get calls at home from him demanding action on something he has read in the morning newspapers or in HEW's "green sheet" of clippings. But he has attracted some good, young talent to HEW. Boasts the boss: "We have the best people who have ever been in this department?and it shows...
...graduate of Holy Cross and Harvard Law, Califano worked on tax and corporate legal problems as a Wall Street lawyer before firing off a presumptuous letter in 1961 seeking a job from Cyrus Vance, then Secretary Robert McNamara's general counsel at the Defense Department. He became a Vance assistant and was spotted by McNamara. At 29, Califano was made a general Pentagon troubleshooter. In 1965 Lyndon Johnson lured Califano away to become his own special assistant. Ensconced in the White House and loving every minute of it, Califano helped shape many of the Great Society programs that...
That footloose style has brought Califano some bad moments at the White House. When Jody Powell, the President's press secretary, first heard of Califano's antismoking crusade, sure to anger the tobacco-growing states, the Georgian exploded: "That son of a bitch! We told him not to do that." Califano denies he ever got such instructions and says he discussed his plan with the President. And despite the predictably strong reaction, especially in North Carolina, Carter reassured the Secretary: "You're on the right track." Indeed, Carter has consistently supported his embattled Cabinet officer...