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

Two Operational Dilemmas

two operational dilemmas • 3 Two Operational Dilemmas An Introduction by Terry Sullivan I started out in eVect not having [a] Chief of StaV and it didn’t work. So, anybody who doesn’t have one and tries to run the responsibilities of the White House, I think, is putting too big a burden on the President himself. You need a Wlter, a person that you have total conWdence in who works so closely with you that in eVect his is almost an alter ego. I just can’t imagine a President not having an eVective Chief of StaV. —Gerald R. Ford, White House 2001 Project The American White House sits at the nerve center of world history. Its policies reach into every part of the American experience. Its bustling daily routines become the subject of serious conversations the world over. At the core of this nerve center, a bureaucratic operation extends the reach and magniWes the voice of the American president. The White House chief of staV manages that operation. So important has that oYce become, that to ignore its requirements tempts presidential fate itself. As one of the last to eschew a chief of staV, President Gerald R. Ford’s words on the subject carry a special message: What we do not know about this oYce imperils the republic. The range of what we do not know astonishes. No systematic scholarly literature has ever developed suYcient to answer the critical questions facing a working White House. No systematic theory has developed, resting on the kind of articulated central principles now common in the study of all other American policy institutions. Because of these two gaps, presidency scholars cannot “talk truth to power” when the subject turns to presidential transitions Untitled-4 6/17/04, 12:00 PM 3 4 • terry sullivan and the related topic of governing from the White House. Instead, scholars must rely upon the willingness of power to talk truth to them. The Forum on the White House Chief of StaV represents one of those rare instances when just that happened. This essay outlines the gaps in knowledge that their discussions tried to Wll. It describes these gaps by asserting two operational dilemmas facing a White House: one about discipline and the other about eVectiveness. This book will return to these two dilemmas in a Wnal chapter analyzing the George W. Bush presidential transition in 2001, the transition immediately following the Forum , as a part of the governing cycle these chiefs discussed. This introduction also highlights the rhythms of an administration’s tenure, from start to restart to reelection and closing out. While this book takes as a principal theme that no one can conduct a presidential transition properly without knowing the nature of governing itself, it also takes seriously the notion that presidential transitions lie on a seamless continuum with governing during the presidential tenure, as well. Each of these portions of a president’s tenure presents its own special challenges to those chiefs of staV who stand their watches then. And, echoing the importance of these two dilemmas, each period presents persistent challenges common to every White House chief of staV who accepts the responsibility for the nerve center. TWO FUNCTIONS OF THE WHITE HOUSE STAFF The White House staV Wlls two presidential needs. First, it extends the president’s reach. It expands the breadth of presidential “awareness” by gathering intelligence, assessing information, and overseeing policy deliberations. It expands presidential strategic considerations, which makes it possible to consider a wider range of alternative scenarios simultaneously. The staV also expands opportunities for controlling implementation by requiring the executive always to anticipate the president’s reaction. In a way, the staV aVords the president something akin to the advantages of the Congress, where its multitudes create a policy-making institution that “never sleeps.” Second, the White House staV magniWes the president’s voice. It creates a wider range of “presidential presence” by coordinating the administration’s “message.” And it provides the capacity to elaborate the president’s position on issues, thereby increasing the likely force of presidential persuasion in public deliberations. The White House staV ensures that the president has the most forceful voice in public debate. Untitled-4 6/17/04, 12:00 PM 4 two operational dilemmas • 5 THE NERVE CENTER The president’s staV works in an extraordinary place. At one point during the Forum, former Carter chief of staV Jack...