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Watching them play together made the spirit of...

10:42, 2010-Jan-31 .. Link

Watching them play together made the spirit of the season come alive In December, I had to reconstitute a large part of my administrationBill Perry, John Deutch, Mickey Kantor, Bob Reich, Hazel OLeary, Laura Tyson, and Henry Cisneros were all leavingWe were losing valuable people in the White House, tooHarold Ickes was returning to his law practice and consulting business, and Deputy Chief of Staff Evelyn Lieberman was going to the State Department to head the Voice of America Early in the month I announced my new national security team: Madeleine Albright as secretary of state; Bill Cohen, former Republican senator from Maine, as secretary of defense; Tony Lake as CIA director; Bill Richardson as UN ambassador; and Sandy Berger as national security advisorAlbright had done an outstanding job at the United Nations and understood the challenges we faced, especially in the Balkans and the Middle EastI thought she had earned the chance to be the first female secretary of stateBill Richardson had proved himself to be a skilled diplomat by his efforts in North Korea and Iraq, and I was pleased when he agreed to become Americas first Hispanic ambassador to the United Nations Bill Cohen was an articulate, youthful-looking politician who had been an innovative fake rolex watches wholesale thinker on defense issues for yearsHe had helped to craft the START I treaty and had played a key role in the legislation that reorganized and strengthened the military command structure in the 1980sI wanted a Republican in the cabinet, liked and respected Cohen, and thought he could fill Bill Perrys very big shoesWhen I pledged to him that I would never politicize defense decisions, he accepted the jobI hated to lose John Deutch at the CIAHe had done a fine job as deputy secretary of defense, then had stepped into the tough CIA job after Jim Woolseys brief tenureTony Lakes work at the National Security Council had given him a unique understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of our intelligence operations, which were especially critical now with the threat of terrorism on the rise I didnt consider anyone other than Sandy Berger for the job of national security advisorWe had been friends for more than twenty yearsHe felt comfortable bringing me bad news and disagreeing with me at meetings, and he had done a superb job on a whole range of issues in the first termSandys analytical powers were considerableHe thought through problems to the end, seeing potential pitfalls that others missed, without being paralyzed by themHe understood my strengths and weaknesses and chanel logo earrings how to make the most of the former and minimize the latterHe also never allowed his ego to get in the way of good decision making George Stephanopoulos was leaving, tooHe had told me not long before the election that he was burned out and had to goUntil I read his memoir, I had no idea how difficult the pressure-packed years had been for him, or how hard he had been on himself, and meGeorge was going on to a career in teaching and television, where I hoped he would be happier Within two weeks I had filled the remaining vacancies in the cabinetI named Bill Daley of Chicago to be secretary of commerce after Mickey Kantor, to my regret, told me he wanted to return to private lifeDaley was a talented man who had led our campaign for NAFTACharlene Barshefsky had been acting trade representative in the eight months since Mickey Kantor had gone to CommerceShe was doing a terrific job, and it was time to take the word acting out of her title I also appointed Alexis Herman to succeed Bob Reich at the Labor Department; Assistant HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to follow Henry Cisneros at HUD; Federico Pea to replace Hazel OLeary at Energy; Rodney Slater, the federal highway administrator, to succeed Pea as secretary of transportation; Aida Alvarez to become head of the Small knock off chanel handbags Business Administration; Gene Sperling to head the National Economic Council on the departure of Laura Tyson; DrJanet Yellen, who had taught Larry Summers at Harvard, to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; Bruce Reed to be my domestic policy advisor, replacing Carol Rasco, who was going to the Department of Education to run our America Reads program; and Sylvia Matthews, a brilliant young woman who worked for Bob Rubin, to replace Harold Ickes as deputy chief of staff Bob Reich had done a good job at the Department of Labor and as a member of the economic team, but it was becoming difficult for him; he disagreed with my economic and budget policies, believing I had put too much emphasis on deficit reduction and invested too little in education, training, and new technologiesBob also wanted to go home to Massachusetts to his wife, Clare, and their sons I was heartsick about losing Henry CisnerosWe had been friends since before I ran for President, and he had done a brilliant job at HUDFor more than a year, Henry had been subject to an investigation by an independent counsel for making incorrect statements about his personal expenses in his FBI vetting interview for the HUD jobThe law made it a crime for a nominee to make a material misstatement, one sale chanel quilted handbag that would affect the confirmation processSenator Al DAmato, whose committee had recommended Cisneross confirmation, wrote a letter saying that Henrys misstatement of the details of his expenses would not have affected his vote or that of any other senator on the committeeProsecutors from the Justice Departments public integrity office argued against a special prosecutor Unfortunately, Janet Reno referred the Cisneros case to Judge Sentelles panel anywayTrue to form, they saddled him with a Republi-can special prosecutor: David Barrett, an active partisan who, though accused of no wrongdoing, reportedly had close ties with officials who were convicted in the HUD scandals of the Reagan administrationNo one had accused Henry of any impropriety in his job, but he had been plunged into Whitewater World anywayHenrys legal bills had left him deeply in debt and he had two kids in collegeHe had to earn more money to support his family and pay his lawyersI was just thankful he had stayed for the full four years Though I had made a lot of changes, I thought we could maintain the spirit of camaraderie and teamwork that had marked the first termMost of the new appointees were transferring from other positions in the administration, and many of my cabinet members were staying fake hermes handbags

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Watching them play together made the spirit of...

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