The Nerve Center: Lessons in Governing from the White House Chiefs of Staff

Governing from the White House

Governing from the White House A Foreword by James A. Baker, III We created the Baker Institute to organize eVorts just like the Forum on the Role of the White House Chief of StaV, bringing scholars and journalists into a dialogue with those who have carried the burdens of oYce, in this case governing from the White House. It was an extraordinary gathering. I doubt that there have ever been this many former chiefs of staV in the same place at the same time. They are all very busy individuals, and they participated in this Forum at some sacriWce to their personal and professional lives. THE WORST JOB IN WASHINGTON My distinguished colleagues and I came to this oYce from diVerent backgrounds —from Congress and business, from law, and from politics.We all have diVerent policy perspectives. Some of us have even run campaigns to throw others of us out of oYce. Despite our varied backgrounds and political views, all of us share one common experience, and that is the experience of holding what I would characterize as the second-toughest job in Washington. When you realize that even though the White House chief of staV has tremendous power, he or she, nevertheless , is not a principal but only a staVer—face it, it’s right there in the title— then it is easy to understand why some people also characterize it not just as the second-toughest job in Washington but as the worst job in Washington. As Untitled-3 6/17/04, 11:59 AM 13 xiv • james a. baker, iii the only person in history who was dumb enough to have taken the job twice in his life, I confess that I was sometimes inclined to agree with that characterization . DISTINCTLY CRITICAL However you characterize the job, it remains a distinctly critical job to the president, to the executive branch, to the country, and today, given our preeminence , to the world at large. Shortly after an election, somebody wakes up one morning to realize that in a very, very few weeks he or she will lead a team that is not yet picked into America’s nerve center. There’s an old saying that every time history repeats itself, the price goes up. It’s an aphorism that could have been written with the White House staV in mind. Today, as we all know, White House mistakes reverberate loud and long and, thanks to the revolution in modern communications, at the speed of light. In short, the challenges facing the White House chief of staV are truly immense and the cost of failure is commensurately high. That’s one reason we convened these former White House chiefs of staV and the central reason they came—to lend our collective experiences to whatever administration, Democrat or Republican, assumed oYce. Unlike much of the political world, where winning and losing matter a great deal and justify strenuous and partisan eVorts, good governance knows no party. Managing America’s business with grace and ease yields no partisan advantages. It is simply good for America. In realization of that fact, we have all participated to the fullest and have gladly oVered our experiences without reservation. THE MEETING OF FOUR FORCES When I look back upon my years as White House chief of staV, it strikes me that the job for all of its complexity can pretty much be summed up by four “P”s: people, politics, process, and policy. It is the task of the chief of staV to assist the president in getting the Wrst three of these “P”s right, because you can’t get the fourth one without the Wrst three. Only if the president succeeds at managing to govern can the administration fulWll its ultimate goal—the formulation and implementation of eVective policy. Untitled-3 6/17/04, 11:59 AM 14 governing from the white house • xv PEOPLE Let me take the Wrst three “P”s one by one, sharing my thoughts on them as a way to foreshadow the Forum’s deliberations. I’ll begin with people. Now, an administration’s choice of key personnel outside the White House, particularly at the very senior and certainly at the cabinet level, is something that usually falls well outside the purview of the chief of staV, but it is incumbent upon the chief of staV to build professional working relationships with senior policy makers based...