Who's who

Washington Monthly, Sept, 2002 by Susan Threadgill

Traditionally, the second November of any presidential administration is when new talent begins to cycle in and old hands start to cycle out--or get forced out. So who among the Bush administration might be heading back to the private sector this fall? Within the White House, speculation centers around congressional lobbyist Nicholas Calio and chief of staff Andy Card. Calio was a last-choice pick for the post back in 2001, while Card loves telling reporters how the average tenure for chiefs of staff is 18 months, a mark he'll reach this fall. (It didn't help when Card recently let slip a few swipes at Karl Rove to Esquire's Ron Suskind.) Another possibility is domestic policy adviser Margaret LaMontagne, a Texas-era Bush loyalist who's regarded as something of a lightweight. Among cabinet secretaries, everyone' s favorite whipping boy is gaffe-prone Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. But the truth, one White House reporter says, is that "there's almost no cabinet secretary that isn't rumored to be unhappy and wanting to go" EPA administrator Christie Whitman, HHS secretary Tommy Thompson, and Education Secretary Rod Paige have been constantly overruled by the White House and cut out of the policy loop on major decisions. Mel Martinez seems to have spent more time in Florida campaigning for Jeb Bush than he has running HUD. Even Colin Powell is rumored to be threatening to quit. Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta has also been under tire lately, for embarrassing the White House officials by getting them to oppose a proposal to arm airline pilots, only to watch the measure quickly gain bipartisan support in Congress. And congressional appropriators are furious with Mineta for blaming the new Transportation Security Agency's slow progress on a lack of funding, when it was Mitch Daniels, the administration's own budget guru, who had signed off on recent cuts for TSA. There's only one hitch: Mineta is the only Democrat in the cabinet, which may keep him safe.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his posse may need to watch out--there's a new sheriff in town. New US. Attorney for Northern Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald is the first out-of-towner with no Chicago connections or loyalty ever to hold the post. Nominated by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.--and no relation), Patrick Fitzgerald has a reputation for being an apolitical corruption-hunter with impeccable morals. Rumor has it that Illinois GOP leaders who have been in a blood feud with Daley for years hope the new prosecutor will start poking around the billions in city contracts the mayor controls and find something damaging.

Conventional wisdom holds that Republicans won the Florida recount fight because they were more motivated. Now we know just how motivated: According to a recent Miami Herald report, at least 50 GOP ground troops in Florida--including many who helped staged mini-riots outside vote-counting venues across the state--were later appointed to top jobs in the Bush administration. They include John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control; Matt Schlapp, a special assistant to the president; Sue Cobb, U.S. ambassador to Jamaica; Jeanie Mamo, a White House spokeswoman; R. Ted Cruz, director of policy and planning at the Federal Trade Commission; five current lawyers in the White House counsel's office; and three general counsels to cabinet secretaries.

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and his daughter, Emma, were among those who showed up at the Washington, D.C, premiere of the movie Stuart Little 2, produced by Douglas Wick and his wife Lucy Fisher. But the guest of honor was Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, an unlikely crony of the two Hollywood big shots. Fisher, formerly the rice chair of Sony Pictures, and Wick, the Academy Award-winning producer of Gladiator, are the co-founders of CuresNow, a foundation they formed last year to promote stem cell research. The free movie, Wick explained, was "a thank you to all of the people in Washington who've been helpful on diabetes and stem cell." High on that list is Hatch, an anti-abortion Mormon who has bucked many in his party to fight a federal ban on stem-cell research. But the conservative senator was on hand for another reason, too: Hatch wrote a song featured on the movie soundtrack. The songwriting senator has, over the years, seen his work recorded by such luminaries as Gladys Knight, Donny Osmond, and John Schneider of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame, though none of his 11 CDs has sold more than 10,000 copies. But Hatch's support for stem-cell research has boosted his music career. Jerry Zucker, another founder of CuresNow, used Hatch's song "America Rocks" in his film Rat Race last year. Says Wick, "If he ever wants to leave Washington and come be a songwriter in L.A. I think he could have a very good career."