Dole Calls Reports of Her Lack of Clout Not True

Labor Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole, the first member of President Bush’s Cabinet to resign, said Wednesday she was leaving for new challenges and not because of “totally erroneous” reports that she lacked influence at the White House.

Dole, the highest-ranking woman in the Bush Administration, said that after 25 years of government service she was looking forward to focusing on humanitarian causes at her new job as president of the American Red Cross.

She plans to leave her post at the end of November to begin work at the Red Cross in January, the Labor Department said.

Dole denied that she had been f0ozen out by White House policy makers. Aides and union leaders have said she had little clout at Bush’s Cabinet table and that many labor policy decisions were left to Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.

“I can’t imagine who was saying this. . . . Most definitely, I feel very much a part of the circle that’s making the decisions here at the White House,” Dole said after announcing her resignation with the President at her side.

Later, in an interview, Dole testily labeled those reports “totally erroneous.”

“It’s been a wonderful relationship,” she said of her ties to the White House.

Dole, 54, wife of Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), also denied that she might use the Red Cross position to lay the groundwork for long-term political goals.

“I’m on my way to the Red Cross. I have no plans to run for anything,” she said.

Rumors have been rampant that she would eventually step down to run in 1992 for the Senate seat now held by Democrat Terry Sanford of her native North Carolina.

In the interview, she did not rule out some future bid for elective office. “You learn in this town never to say never,” she said.

Bush said Dole had “earned the respect of the American people and as secretary of labor has made the workplace safer, healthier and more secure.”