FAUCI DIARY ARCHIVE — Saturday, March 9, 2002
https://faucisdiary.com/diary/2002-03-09

Text below is verbatim from the released PDFs, with the original line breaks.
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DIARY ENTRY — Saturday, March 9, 2002
Source: Diary Prequel, p. 44 of 2026.07.27_Diary-Prequel-.pdf
Words: 131
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Attended Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, D.C. Spent time speaking
with President Bush, Karl Rove, Clay Johnson, Donna Shalala, Tim Russert, Sam
Donaldson, John Neroponte, Cokie Roberts, etc. The topic was often concern and
dismay on the part of people (non-White House) that Bush was not going to offer me the
NIH job. Most felt that it really was the litmus test issue and not the 2 jobs issue. Clay
Johnson, who I believe is behind all of this, actually volunteered to me that ”Dr. Zerhouni
is no Tony Fauci, but then again, there really is only 1 Tony Fauci”. It is tough for me to
figure out just how much the Social Conservative/Sen. Sam Borwnback issue played in
Clay Johnson’s insistence to the president that I not be NIH Director.