Elders was pro-choiceNow they claimed that our...
Elders was pro-choiceNow they claimed that our efforts to set up school-based clinics would lead to sexual encounters by hordes of young people who would never even have considered doing such a thing if Joycelyn hadnt promoted the clinicsElders and her ideas even occurred to overheated teenagers in the backseats of their carsIt was a fight worth making
When I became President, I appointed Joycelyn Elders surgeon general, and she was very popular with the public-health community for her continued willingness to stick her neck out for sound, if controversial, health policiesIn December 1994, after we had suffered staggering losses in the midterm congressional elections to the Republican right, DrElders made headlines again for suggesting that teaching children to masturbate might be a good way to reduce the likelihood of teen pregnancyAt the time, I had all I could handle to maintain the support of skittish congressional Democrats, and I was determined to fight the Republicans on their radical proposals to cut education, health care, and environmental protectionNow I faced the prospect that Gingrich and company could divert the attention of the press and the public mulberry style bags away from their budget cuts by pillorying usAt any other time, we probably could have faced the heat, but I had already loaded the Democrats down with my controversial budget, NAFTA, the failed health-care effort, and the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban, which the National Rifle Association had used to beat about a dozen of our House membersI decided I had to ask for her resignationI hated to, because she was honest, able, and brave, but we had already shown enough political tone-deafness to last through several presidential termsI hope someday shell forgive meShe did a lot of good with the two appointments I gave her
The biggest staff loss I sustained in 1989 was Betsey WrightIn early August she announced that she was taking a leave of absence for several weeksI asked Jim Pledger to do double duty at Finance and Administration and as her temporary replacementBetseys announcement caused a lot of gossip and speculation, because everyone knew she ran a tight ship in the governors office and kept a close eye on everything that was going on in state governmentJohn Brummett, the acerbic columnist for the Arkansas Gazette, wrote a column wondering whether our discounted gucci bag trial separation might end in divorceHe thought not, because we were too important to each otherThat we were, but Betsey needed to get awayShe had been working herself to death since my defeat in 1980, and it was taking its tollWe were both workaholics who got more irritable when we were exhaustedIn 1989, we were trying to do a lot in a difficult climate, and we too often took our frustrations out on each otherAt the end of the year, Betsey formally resigned as chief of staff after a decade of selfless serviceIn early 1990, I named Henry Oliver, a retired FBI agent and former chief of police in Fort Smith, as Betseys successorHenry didnt really want to do it, but he was my friend and believed in what we were trying to do, so he gave me a good year
Betsey came back in the 92 campaign to help defend me against attacks on my record and my personal lifeThen, after a stint in Washington with Anne Wexlers lobbying firm early in my presidency, she went home to Arkansas to live in the OzarksMost Arkansans will never know the large role she played in giving them better schools, more jobs, and an honest, effective state government, but they shouldI couldnt have accomplished cartier santos watches much of what I did as governor without herAnd without her, I never would have survived the Arkansas political wars to become President
At the beginning of August, President Bush announced that he was inviting the nations governors to an education summit the following monthWe met September 27 and 28 at the University of Virginia in CharlottesvilleMany of the Democrats were skeptical of the meeting, because the President and his secretary of education, Lauro Cavazos, made it clear the meeting was not a prelude to a large increase in federal support for educationI shared their concern, but was I excited by the prospect that the summit could produce a road map for the next steps in education reform, just as the Nation at Risk report had done in 1983I believed the Presidents interest in education reform was genuine, and agreed with him that there were important things we could do without new federal moneyFor example, the administration supported giving parents and students the right to choose a public school other than the one to which they were assignedArkansas had just become the second state after Minnesota to adopt the proposal, and I wanted the other forty-eight louis vuitton bag states to follow suitI also believed that, if the summit produced the right kind of report, governors could use it to build public support for more investment in educationIf people knew what they would get for their money, their aversion to new taxes might lessenAs the co-chairman of the Governors Task Force on Education, along with Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina, I wanted to build a consensus among the Democrats, then to work with the Republicans on a statement reflecting the outcome of the summit
President Bush opened the meeting with a brief but eloquent speechAfterward, we all took a stroll around the central lawn to give the photographers something for the evening news and morning papers, then went to workThe President and MrsBush hosted a dinner that nightHillary sat at the Presidents table and got into a debate with him about how bad Americas infant-mortality rate wasThe President couldnt believe it when she said eighteen countries did a better job than we did in keeping babies alive until the age of twoWhen she offered to get him the evidence, he said he would find it himselfHe did, and the next day he gave me a note for Hillary saying she was dolce and gabbana ri
