Word: sununu
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This good-cop, bad-cop routine has become a staple of the Bush White House. No one plays the heavy better than Sununu, and no one takes more heat on Bush's behalf. That is why Bush picked Sununu as his right-hand man, and why he prizes...
When he named Sununu his chief of staff shortly after the 1988 election, Bush handed the ultimate insider's job to a bumptious outsider with a chip on , his shoulder: a double-hyphenated Lebanese- and Greek-American, born in Havana with a funny name. Bush pointedly ignored the protests of such close advisers as Secretary of State James Baker, leading the Washington establishment to conclude that he had "done another Quayle." Sununu was obviously brilliant: a three-term Governor of New Hampshire and former engineering professor with an IQ estimated at 180. He had been an invaluable political asset, rescuing...
That was 16 months ago. Today Bush is surfing along at 60%-plus public- approval ratings, and much of the credit falls to Sununu. His White House displays almost none of the backbiting and leaking that roiled the Reagan Administration. He adroitly appeases fellow right-wing Republicans who have never much trusted Bush. On the other flank, Sununu exuberantly baits environmentalists and others into blaming him, rather than the President, when the Administration backslides from Bush's gauzy promises. Though he possesses no more "vision" than Bush does, Sununu has substituted a quiet and canny strategy to attain the President...
...fact, Sununu has emerged as Bush's most inspired choice for any senior post. Amid the bland Washington-retread Wasps with whom Bush has peopled much of his Cabinet and staff, Sununu adds both spice and balance. His brisk certainty and willingness to take bold stands complement his risk-averse boss...
...play off each other like a wrestling tag team on late-night cable: Gentleman George and Snarlin' Sununu; the King of Kind and Gentle and his Dark Prince. Bush may call himself the Environmental President and the Education President, but he has Sununu to make sure that this rhetoric stays relatively cheap...