Dont ask, dont tell basically said that if you... Dont ask, dont tell basically said that if you say youre gay, its presumed that you intend to violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and you can be removed, unless you can convince your commander youre celibate and therefore not in violation of the codeBut if you dont say youre gay, the following things will not lead to your removal: marching in a gay-rights parade in civilian clothes; hanging out in gay bars or with known homosexuals; being on homosexual mailing lists; and living with a person of the same sex who is the beneficiary of your life insurance policyOn paper, the military had moved a long way, to live and let live, while holding on to the idea that it couldnt acknowledge gays without approving of homosexuality and compromising morale and cohesionIn practice it often didnt work out that wayMany anti-gay officers simply ignored the new policy and worked even harder to root out homosexuals, costing the military millions of dollars that would have been far better spent making America more secure
In the short run, I got the worst of both worldsI lost the fight, and the gay community was highly critical of me for the compromise, simply refusing to acknowledge the consequences of having so little support in Congress, and giving me little credit for lifting another ban on gays, the ban against serving in critical national security positions, or for the substantial number of gays
bag chloe paddington and lesbians who were working throughout the administrationBy contrast, Senator Dole won bigBy raising the issue early, and repeatedly, he guaranteed it so much publicity that it appeared I was working on little else, which caused a lot of Americans who had elected me to fix the economy to wonder what on earth I was doing and whether theyd made a mistake
I was finding it a challenge to keep another campaign commitment: cutting the White House staff by 25 percentIt was a nightmare for Mack McLarty, especially since we had a more ambitious agenda than the previous administrations and were getting more than twice as much mailOn February 9, just a week before I was slated to announce my economic program, I proposed the 25 percent reduction, cutting the staff by 350 people, down to 1,044 employeesEverybody took a hit; even Hillarys office would be smaller than Barbara Bushs, though she would take on greater responsibilitiesThe reduction I regretted most was the elimination of twenty career positions in the correspondence sectionI would have preferred to reduce their numbers by attrition, but Mack said there was no other way to meet the goalBesides, we had to have some money to modernize the White HouseThe staff couldnt even send and receive e-mail, and the phone system hadnt been changed since the Carter yearsWe couldnt do conference calls, but anyone could press one of the big lighted extension
chanel earings buttons and listen in on someone elses conversation, including mineSoon we had a better system installed
We also beefed up one part of the White House staff: the casework operation that was designed to help individual citizens who had personal problems with the federal government, often involving an effort to obtain disability, veterans, or other benefitsUsually citizens call on their Usenators or representatives for help in such matters, but because I had run a highly personalized campaign, many Americans felt they could call on meI got an especially memorable request on February 20, when Peter Jennings, the ABC news anchor, moderated a televised Childrens Town Meeting in the White House, in which young people between the ages of eight and fifteen asked me questionsThe kids asked if I helped Chelsea with her homework, why no women had been elected President, what I would do to help Los Angeles after the riots, how health care would be paid for, and whether I could do anything to stop violence in schoolsA lot of them were interested in the environment
But one of the children wanted helpAnastasia Somoza was a beautiful girl from New York City who was confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsyShe explained that she had a twin sister, Alba, who also had cerebral palsy but who, unlike her, couldnt speakSo because she cant speak, they put her in a special education classBut she uses
cartier tank louis computers to speakAnd I would like her to be in a regular education class just like meAnastasia said she and her parents were convinced that Alba could do regular schoolwork if given a chanceFederal law required children with disabilities to be educated in the least restrictive environment, but the critical decision about what is least restrictive is made at the childs schoolIt took about a year, but eventually Alba got into a regular class
Hillary and I kept in touch with the Somoza family, and in 2002, I spoke at the girls high school graduationThey both went on to college, because Anastasia and her parents were determined to give Alba all the opportunities she deserved, and werent shy about asking others, including me, to helpEvery month, the agency liaison who headed the casework operation sent me a report on the people wed helped, along with a few of the moving thank-you letters they sent
In addition to the staff cuts, I announced an executive order to cut administrative expenses 3 percent throughout the government, and a reduction in the salaries of top appointees and in their perks, like limousine service and private dining roomsIn a move that would prove to be a tremendous morale booster, I changed the rules of the White House Mess to allow more junior staff to use what had been the private preserve of high-level White House officials
Our young staffers were working long hours and
see by chloe bag weekends, and it seemed foolish to me to require them all to leave for lunch, order in, or bring a paper bag with food from homeBesides, access to the White House Mess implied that they, too, were importantThe mess was a wood-paneled room with good food prepared by navy personnelI ordered lunch from it almost every day and enjoyed going down to visit with the young people who worked in the kitchenOnce a week they served Mexican dishes I especially likedAfter I left office, the mess was again closed to all but senior staffI believe our policy was good for morale and productivity
With all the extra work and fewer people to do it, we would have to rely more than ever not only on those junior staffers, but also on the thousand-plus volunteers who put in long hours, some of them virtually full-timeThe volunteers opened the mail, sent form replies when appropriate, filled requests for information, and did countless other tasks, without which the White House would have been far less responsive to the American peopleAll the volunteers got in return for their efforts, apart from the satisfaction of serving, was an annual thank-you reception Hillary and I hosted for them on the South LawnThe White House couldnt function without them
Besides the specific cuts I had already decided on, I was convinced that with a longer-term systematic approach, we could save a lot more money and improve government
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