Word: sununu
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...quality of presidential character is knowing what you don't know. Ronald Reagan relied on James Baker, and George Bush turned to John Sununu, because both Presidents knew they lacked the rigor required to run the Executive Branch alone. Clinton refuses to admit that he cannot do it all himself. "They need someone who can maintain iron discipline, who will look at the schedule and take a red pen to anything that isn't about the economy," said a senior Democrat. But Clinton needs someone who can also discipline Clinton. Says a close friend of 25 years: "They...
...House veterans say Clinton must take steps early to prevent Hillary from being transformed into an unaccountable power center. "If Hillary is going to let herself be a visible yet undefined force in the West Wing," said a Bush Administration veteran, "then she is setting herself up to be Sununu- ized. Everybody who makes an appeal to Hillary and wins will leak it. And everybody who makes an appeal and loses will leak it too. Over time, that will be bad for Bill. They've got to define it so that everyone knows what her authority will...
...toward Baker that they do toward other key Cabinet members of the Reagan/Bush era. Baker was much less of an ideologue than many of the others (his views on abortion, for example, are still not certain). Therefore, the spite directed toward, for example, Edwin Meese III and John H. Sununu never really hit the same level with Baker. In addition, the international developments for which the State Department takes credit (deservedly or undeservedly) during the Bush presidency are ones which merit praise on both sides of the political spectrum...
...courtly bow more suited to a maitre d' than to the CEO of a FORTUNE 500 company. He doesn't hold "meetings" or give "interviews" but instead likes to "visit" with friends and colleagues. Such humility might seem a hazard in the job that got the better of John Sununu and Sam Skinner...
Boskin increasingly clashed with Sununu over the President's sunny pronouncements on the economy. Sununu kept Boskin away from Bush until November 1991, when the economist threatened to resign in protest. Granted an audience, Boskin told the President that the economy was not recovering as quickly as it had from previous recessions because it was struggling under unprecedented burdens, including the huge debts left over from the Reagan era. Among the new hardships were the steep regulatory costs of the Clean Air Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Boskin later bluntly told Bush that he was unlikely...