In an Uncertain World by Robert Rubin & Jacob Weisberg

Author:Robert Rubin & Jacob Weisberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781588363381
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2003-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

AT THE BEGINNING of Clinton’s second term, I had to decide whether to stay or leave—possibly to become chairman of the Carnegie Corporation, a foundation involved in an enormous range of issues from education and civic participation to international security and development concerns. The President wanted to get together to discuss the issue and called me at the Jefferson one night at about 10:30 and asked me to come over. I was getting ready to go to bed but was happy to oblige. Since my Secret Service detail had turned in for the night, I went downstairs and walked over to the White House.

I went to the nearest gate, and the uniformed Secret Service officer inside the gatehouse asked if he could help me. “I’m here to see the President,” I said, mentioning that I was Secretary of the Treasury.

The guard gave me a suspicious look and sent me to another gate, where they recognized me and let me in. Then I went upstairs to the second floor of the residence, where Clinton and I had a long talk about what I was going to do, interspersed with an open-ended discussion of politics, our views of other people, and the policy issues that animated both of us.

Sometime after 2:00 X, I finally said, “Mr. President, I’ve just got to go home. I need to get up and be at work tomorrow.”

“Okay,” Clinton said. “Thanks for coming over.”

There was just one problem. I’d left home without my wallet.

“Can you lend me five dollars for cab fare?” I asked. “I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”

“Well, I don’t carry money,” Clinton said. “Maybe Hillary has some.” But she was already asleep, and he didn’t want to wake her up.

I suggested borrowing money from the Secret Service. So we asked them, and they immediately offered to drive me home.

There was another job possibility for me if I stayed. Leon Panetta was heading back to California and the President needed a new chief of staff to run the White House. Leon tried to convince me that I should take his place. For years, when I worked on Wall Street, I had always thought that being chief of staff to the President—which put you at the very core of the U.S. government and involved you in virtually all matters—would be the most compelling job in America. But now that this had—beyond my wildest imagination—become a real possibility, I knew I would pass.

While the job retained much of its appeal in the abstract, I didn’t think my being chief of staff would actually work, either for the President or for me. When you’re chief of staff at the White House, you can be an effective advocate for your own views, but you’re ultimately a personal assistant to the President and you’re deeply involved in all of his politics. I’d read some books about how previous administrations had functioned, and from them, as well as from working in the White House myself, I understood that an integral part of

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