Word: podestas
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When Erskine Bowles first arrived at the White House as deputy chief of staff, he had a problem with one of his subordinates. Actually, the problem was that John Podesta refused to be his subordinate, even though the President had ordered it. "John's the kind of guy--you've got to earn his respect," says Bowles, laughing. "He damn well wasn't going to give...
...particularly good start. But when the two were thrown together to salvage the doomed nomination of Henry Foster for Surgeon General ("It was pretty well screwed up by then," Bowles says), Bowles noticed something about the prickly, rail-thin Podesta. "Every time this guy said something, it was acerbic, but it was always on target," Bowles told TIME. Both of them eventually left the White House to do other work, and both returned--but this time Bowles had recruited Podesta back to be his deputy. And when Bowles was ready to leave as chief of staff...
WASHINGTON: Well, John Podesta's transition to his new post as White House chief of staff should at least be smooth. Outgoing chief Erskine Bowles said last month he "hadn't spent two minutes a week" on the Lewinsky scandal -- which means that for the past 10 months it's been Podesta's full-time task. And on Tuesday President Clinton, with impeachment hearings ready to roll in a few weeks, sounded happy to have a specialist...
...course he couldn't say that. Podesta "entered public service for the right reasons and he has certainly stayed there for the right reasons," said Clinton, introducing the political bodyguard who made his name digging dirt for Michael Dukakis in '88. "He knows how the White House works, but even more importantly, he knows why the White House ought to work and for whom every single one of us does work." And of course whom -- for the next two years (or maybe less) -- the White House is going to be working against...
...reached Congress, "I hadn't spent two minutes a week on it"--the problem has consumed a year that Bowles had hoped would be spent consolidating the Administration's accomplishments. Because Bowles had neither the inclination nor the temperament for scandal control, that job fell to Bowles' deputy, JOHN PODESTA, who is the leading contender for Bowles' post--which says a lot about what the President expects will dominate his remaining time in office...