Thursday, December 27, 2001

Receive a letter from Sen Brownback dated Dec. 19, 2001 in which he states that he is “deeply concerned by your inability to define the entity created after the successful procedure referred to by some as human somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)…” He wants me to respond. I do not want to put anything in writing and so I call his office and ask to speak with the Senator. His unbelievably right wing staffer, Rob Wassinger, answers and says that they will not put the call through to the Senator and that I should answer the questions in writing. Clearly, they are trying to trap me and clearly Wassinger is an asshole. Jan. 6 – 22, 2001 – Clearly, it is unclear what is going on with the White House and my nomination. Secretary Thompson keeps pushing the President to appoint me and the President defers to Clay Johnson, Director of White House Personnel, who has actually never interviewed me. I get word indirectly from Scott Whitaker, Bob Charrow and others that there really is a political battle going on in the WH with a strong anti- Thompson faction led by Clay Johnson who does not want to appoint me because he wants to put down Thompson who is pushing me. On the other hand, there are those who clearly want me, but are less aggressive in pushing any agenda since they are assuming that I will get appointed. It is unclear what role Sen Brownback is playing in influencing Clay Johnson. I hear from Rick Klausner that the issue is just that they are reluctant for me to do two jobs simultaneously. I doubt this and believe that there is something else going on. Jan.22, 2001 – Finally, I get called to the West Wing of the WH to meet with Clay Johnson and Ed Moy (Johnson’s deputy) to discuss the job. Johnson was cold and abrupt. He said that the President was getting confused messages about my “conditions” for the job and the POTUS had asked Johnson to clarify things. Johnson coldly and abruptly asked how I can do 2 jobs simultaneously. I explained about the extraordinary overlap in what the NIH Director must know and do with what the Institute Directors must know and do and tell him that I feel that I will have no problem doing this. He clearly was not convinced. Then he wanted to know why I wanted 2 full salaries, i.e. the NIH Director’s salary and the NIAID Director’s salary. I explained that this was not the case, and that I merely did not want to lose money by relinquishing my retention bonus that I could not take as NIH Director as well as several outside activities that I could not do as NIH Director. He acted (coldly) like he understood that. As soon as I answered these 2 questions, he abruptly said: “Well, you answered my questions and told me what I need to know. Thanks a lot and have a nice day”, whereupon he ended the meeting. Never did he even approach asking what my vision for the NIH was or other related substantive questions. Clearly he had made up his mind before the meeting and was only meeting because the President had asked him to.