Word: jobbing
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...job that is subject to enormous political pressure, seen and unseen, from both parties, Elmendorf is nobody's pushover. In July, he rocked Capitol Hill when he testified that instead of bringing the government's health care costs down, earlier versions of legislation under consideration in both the House and the Senate would drive them up faster. "I can think of 30 ways to say that, that would have been honest but would have gotten less in the way of headlines," says Urban Institute president Robert Reischauer, one of Elmendorf's predecessors as the head of the CBO. "I fired...
...Though Elmendorf, 47, hasn't always told lawmakers what they wanted to hear in his year on the job, he has won wide praise for his independence. A native of upstate New York, he taught at Harvard before joining the CBO as an analyst in 1993. Since then, he has done stints at the Federal Reserve, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Treasury Department. "I have enormous respect for him," says Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad. "He plays it straight, and he's enormously serious about getting it right...
...been talking about the stress of congressional hearings, the burden of sending young men and women to war, and just as our conversation was drawing to a close, he said, "I always used to tell people that Texas A&M football caused me more stress than any job I've ever had. And they always thought I was exaggerating." I expressed disbelief, but he stood by the statement...
...power, control and an astonishing longevity. Just 5 ft. 8 in., with small hands and feet, the demure 66-year-old Kansan has outlasted seven Presidents as well as most of his fellow bureaucrats and policymakers. He's the only entry-level CIA analyst to rise to the top job, director of central intelligence. And he's the only Secretary of Defense ever to be asked to stay on in a rival party's Administration. He has thrived through a combination of endurance, pragmatism and bureaucratic savvy. And during the past year, on issue after issue - Pentagon reform, missile defense...
...after then CIA director William Casey retired, Reagan nominated Gates to become director of central intelligence. It was the midst of the Iran-contra hearings, however, and there was little hope of a quick confirmation. After four weeks, Gates withdrew his nomination. He recalls going back to his job as deputy and wanting to hide from his colleagues, then getting a call that his father died. Gates was convinced that watching him go through those hearings and investigations was too much for his father's weak heart. The shock and the stress of those six months was too much...