Saturday, November 29, 2008

Had brunch with small group of people at Richard and Donna Ben- Veniste’s house. He is a great guy with whom Chris and I have developed a nice friendship. He asked about the NIH Director job and suggested without my implying that I should tell the Obama people that I want to do both NIAID Director and NIH Director. This is what I agreed upon with Tommy Thompson 6 years ago, but the WH (Clay Johnson) blocked it and said that I could take one or the other. I picked NIAID Director. I actually do not think that doing both jobs would work, mainly because people would jump on the “appearance” of conflict every time that I made a decision that they did not like or if their grant did not get funded, and on and on. Also at the brunch was Carl Feldbaum, the IG of the DoD during the Carter Administration and his son Harley who is at Hopkins School of Public Health and is very interested in “Health Diplomacy”. He has been an admirer of mine for years as a student. I hope to help him and perhaps advise him on career choices.