High-Flying Aides : Sununu: Just the latest to be brought down to Earth

Most modern Presidents have had one top aide on whom they depended heavily for advice, for carrying out sensitive tasks, most of all for being hard-nosed naysayers who could draw to themselves political heat that might otherwise singe the President.

That aide, at least from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency on, has been known as White House chief of staff, but the functions of the unofficial office long predate the 1950s. Col. Edward M. House was Woodrow Wilson’s indispensable alter ego, for example, while James M. Byrnes served virtually as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s assistant president. A lot of chiefs of staff have taken full advantage of--indeed, reveled in--the authority presidents delegated to them. More than a few--Eisenhower’s Sherman Adams, Richard M. Nixon’s H.R. Haldeman, Jimmy Carter’s Hamilton Jordan, Ronald Reagan’s Donald Regan--eventually succeeded in embarrassing their bosses and were forced to seek work elsewhere.

And now there’s George Bush’s John H. Sununu.

It does him no injustice to note that Sununu is not a wildly popular figure in political Washington. The nature of his job all but ensures that he would not be. He’s the guy who steps on toes and egos by nixing pet projects and denying favors, by deciding what papers the President will see and who gets to see the President. That’s one reason why congressional Republicans aren’t falling all over themselves to rally behind Sununu now that questions are being asked about his frequent use of Air Force jets for political and personal junkets.

The White House says Sununu has taken 77 trips aboard Air Force planes in the last 27 months; 24 were strictly for political purposes, four were personal--ski vacations and such. Why use the C-20 military version of the Gulfstream III corporate jet when less-exalted transportation was available? The official explanation is that Sununu needed secure communications just in case he had to talk to the President while winging hither and yon. Originally the White House even said that it has been a presidential order since 1987 that chiefs of staff should travel this way. Subsequently it corrected itself; the option for such travel has existed since 1987, leaving it up to the chief of staff to choose. That’s an important distinction: Given a choice, Sununu took the perk and flew with it.

The White House accounting says the government was reimbursed more than $45,000 for Sununu’s personal and political trips. But reimbursement is made on the basis of commercial coach fares, while operating a C-20 costs just under $3,500 an hour . How essential is it that the chief of staff fly what one congressional critic calls Air Sununu? Secure, portable communications are available outside the C-20, and of course earlier chiefs of staff managed to make do quite well without having their own airline. The White House chief of staff, let it be remembered, is only a political appointee, not an elected constitutional officer, let alone a surrogate President.

We recognize the hopelessness of looking for humility in politics. But surely a modicum of control over the abuse of office isn’t too much to ask.