Kineño Remembers: From the King Ranch to the White House

12. The Rear View Mirror

C H A P T E R 12 3 The Rear View Mirror It was a bright, sunny December day in Washington, D.C. John Cleveland , my driver, skillfully and quickly moved the car from downtown Washington to the West Wing of the White House.Earlier in the day I had spoken to the commission appointed by President Bush to push the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Many of these colleges had been in existence for more than one hundred years, and a presidential advisory board on HBCUs had been established during my term as secretary to enhance the educational capabilities of these schools. I thought the talk had gone well and that the response from the commission had been warm and generous in praise of my efforts for minority education.I did not realize that I had just given my last speech in Washington as secretary of education. I was on my way to meet with John Sununu, the president’s chief of staff. I had known John for some time. In the 1970s, both of us had been on the faculty of Tufts University , Sununu in engineering, and I in the medical school. John had requested this meeting, but he had canceled it several times. Today, the call from his office had come again, and he wanted to see me in the afternoon.I could not imagine the topic,but a call from the White House did not concern me. Sununu and I had worked well together ,and we had met on many occasions to discuss educational initiatives . I had never had a major disagreement or confrontation with him during my time inWashington.I thought perhaps he was going to chastise me because I had turned down a number of invitations to do fundraisers or campaign for Republican candidates. The White House had been persistent in its attempts to get me on the political campaign trail, but I still turned down a number of invitations. I believed we had a more important agenda in the Department of Education than continuous efforts to elect Republicans to Congress. I walked into Sununu’s office. It was decorated for Christmas; a beautiful tree stood in one corner,and there were blazing logs in the fireplace . It was the season of good cheer in Washington, but suddenly I had the feeling that Sununu had not invited me to his office for holiday greetings. In fact, John had the misfortune of giving me my Christmas lumpof coalfromtheWhiteHouse.TothisdayIremainconvincedthat he was most uncomfortable and did not welcome his task. After preliminary words on the weather and the season, Sununu said that the president wanted a change in the Cabinet composition because he wanted to bring in some new people at mid-term. I knew then where this discussion was going. The president’s domestic agenda was in trouble and his popularity was declining just as he was starting to gear up for reelection. Sununu told me the president had just returned from the economic summit in Europe.It was a long trip,and it had given him time to think about the composition of the Cabinet. He wanted a change in the leadership of the Department of Education. Sununu said he was asking for my resignation, but before I answered he asked me to consider an ambassadorship to the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica. He said there was no hurry to make a change; we could take six to eight weeks to announce my resignation. I knew there were no secrets in the White House; staff delighted in leaking news or spreading rumors. Later I learned that Chino had been told by one of my staff that the topic of my meeting with Sununu was my resignation. Sununu urged me to think about the ambassadorship, but I told him I didn’t have to because I didn’t want one. I added that if the president wanted my resignation, he could have it right away. 266 C H A P T E R 12 John said I had done a good job in the Department of Education, and if I hadn’t, he would have let me know about it in no uncertain terms. Again, John asked me to take the ambassadorship, and again I said no to being an ambassador and that the president could have my resignation immediately. Sununu told me to...