Sununu Says Bush Ad-Libbed on Credit Cards

Ten days ago, President Bush called on the nation’s banks to lower the interest rate they charge on credit card accounts. The comment not only grabbed the attention of bankers, it rocked the stock market, which eventually took a 120-point dive.

White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu is not willing to take a similar fall.

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the credit card comment had been scribbled into a Bush speech text at the last minute by Sununu--suggesting in no uncertain terms that the chief of staff deserved the blame for the political turmoil that ensued.

But Sununu, backed by White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater, said the comment was all Bush’s work.

Ignoring the No. 1 rule of Washington--that staff members never point the finger at their boss when something goes awry--Sununu said in a television interview made public on Friday: “The President ad-libbed.”

When asked by interviewer John McLaughlin on the television program “One on One” whether he wrote the comments for Bush at the last minute, Sununu replied, “Absolutely not.”

Fitzwater told reporters that the remarks on credit cards were “the President’s idea. It was in the speech. It was a good idea then, it’s a good idea now. We’re glad it’s in there.”

Did Sununu write the comment into the speech?

“He did not,” Fitzwater said, adding, “Well, that’s what the President said.”

But the new Sununu account was at variance with the White House explanation of only a day earlier, when an official specifically denied that Bush had spoken off-the-cuff.

“The President talked with Sununu about it on Air Force One,” the official said, “and Bush wrote the words down on some note cards.”