Word: costanza
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...hard to quarrel with an Administration attempt to get its act together and speak with one voice. Carter's problem has been more acute than most, since he for so long naively or generously let people like U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young and now deposed White House Aide Midge Costanza pop off at will...
...even suggesting timely topics. Once a booking is made, Rafshoon prepares a briefing paper for the official, setting forth the Administration's line on a number of questions that might be asked. Officials are not supposed to appear on television without being cleared by Rafshoon-something Midge Costanza did not do. Rafshoon abruptly canceled her scheduled appearance on a talk show, and the resulting furor triggered her resignation two weeks ago as a presidential adviser...
Perhaps no one had asked her to go, but neither had she been encouraged to stay by anyone in the White House. Three months ago, aides close to Carter turned over the bulk of her duties to Anne Wexler, 48, a liberal Democratic Party veteran, and moved Costanza from a spacious office near Carter's to a cubbyhole in the White House basement...
...Costanza's feminist supporters were indignant at her departure. But Carter aides insisted that her chief problems were inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Said one of her former colleagues: "She lacked the self-confidence to do the job well." Moreover, Costanza clashed repeatedly with Carter on some policies. "I disagreed with him on three major issues," she said. "I was for full amnesty [for Vietnam-era deserters and draft evaders]; I was for gay rights; I was for a stronger [pro] abortion position...
...Costanza once called her job "a responsibility, not a title," and declared: "I'm not afraid to lose it. But when I leave I want to be the same person who walked in. I'm not gonna change." That obstinate trait was both a virtue and the reason for her downfall...