John H. Sununu
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| John Henry Sununu | |
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| In office 1983 – 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Vesta M. Roy |
| Succeeded by | Judd Gregg |
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| In office 1989 – 1991 |
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| President | George H.W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Ken Duberstein |
| Succeeded by | Samuel K. Skinner |
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| Born | July 2, 1939 Havana, Cuba |
| Political party | Republican |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
John Henry Sununu (born July 2, 1939 in Havana, Cuba) is a former Governor of New Hampshire (1983-89) and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. He is the father of John E. Sununu, currently the Junior Senator from New Hampshire, and formerly a U.S. Representative.
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[edit] Early life
Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba to John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor, and Victoria Dada .[1] He is Roman Catholic and has Lebanese and Palestinian heritage.
He earned a BS in 1961, a Master's degree in 1963, and a Ph.D. in 1966 from MIT, all in mechanical engineering. Sununu is a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
From 1968 until 1973, he was Associate Dean of the College of Engineering at Tufts University and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He served on the Advisory Board of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT from 1984 until 1989.
From 1963 until 1983, he served as President of JHS Engineering Company and Thermal Research Inc. In addition, he helped establish and served as chief engineer for Astro Dynamics Inc. from 1960 until 1965.
[edit] Governor
Sununu became New Hampshire's 85th Governor on January 6, 1983, and served three consecutive terms. He served as chairman of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors, the Republican Governors Association and, in 1987, the National Governors Association.
[edit] White House Chief of Staff
Sununu was the first White House Chief of Staff for Bush, serving from 1989 to 1991. Time magazine dubbed him "Bush's Bad Cop" on the front cover on May 21, 1990. Sununu is responsible for recommending David Souter to president George H. W. Bush for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Sununu co-hosted CNN's nightly Crossfire from March 1992 until February 1998.
[edit] Political positions
Sununu holds deeply conservative economic and social views[2] and as an engineer, he supports the expansion of nuclear energy. He is fiercely against the imposition of new taxes.[2]
[edit] Later life
Sununu is President of JHS Associates, Ltd. and is a partner in Trinity International Partners, a private financial firm.
Sununu is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Board of Trustees for the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation. He is married to the former Nancy Hayes, and they have eight children, including U.S. Senator John E. Sununu.
He recently moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He and his wife were subsequently elected as the town's honorary hog reeves and poundkeepers.[3]
[edit] Controversies
Sununu angered some when he was the only governor of a U.S. state not to call for repeal of the extremely controversial UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 ("Zionism is Racism"). Under pressure he later reversed his position and supported the Republicans' pro-Israel 1988 platform.[2]
Sununu resigned as White House Chief of Staff on December 3, 1991, effective December 15, 1991.[4] His resignation is chiefly blamed on a controversy involving his personal use of government military aircraft,[5] a scandal which was termed "Air Sununu".[6] The Washington Post wrote that Sununu's jets "took him to fat-cat Republican fund-raisers, ski lodges, golf resorts and even his dentist in Boston."[citation needed] Sununu had paid the government only $892 for his more than $615,000 worth of military jet travel.[7] Sununu said that his use of the jets was necessary because he had to be near a telephone at all times for reasons of national security.[8] Sununu became the subject of much late-night television humor over the incident[citation needed]. Sununu worsened the situation shortly afterwards when, after leaking rumors of financial difficulties in his family, he traveled to a rare stamp auction at Christie's auction house in New York City from Washington in a government limousine, spending $5,000 on rare stamps.[9] Sununu then sent the car and driver back to Washington unoccupied while he returned on a corporate jet.[9] In the course of one week, 45 newspapers ran editorials on Sununu, nearly all of them critical of his actions.[10]
Sununu repaid over $47,000 to the government for the flights on the orders of White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, with the help of the Republican Party.[5]
However, other sources claim that Sununu's departure was related to the president's declining approval ratings[11], or George W. Bush's belief that Sununu did not have his father's best interests at heart.[12].
[edit] Trivia
The 1991 police comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear features Sununu who is played by Peter Van Norden.
Sununu's travel scandal was mentioned at least twice on Mystery Science Theater 3000, once during the fourth-season episode Monster A Go-Go[13] and then again during Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie[14], although both were variations on the same joke: A jet is seen flying through the sky, and one of the characters remarks that Sununu is (frivolously) using the vehicle to travel to get a haircut.
John Sununu is also mentioned in the Family Guy episode A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks. The mention is made in a Murphy Brown parody where Jim Dial voiced by the actor who played the character Charles Kimbrough starts to babble and at the ends of the blahs he says John Sununu.
Sununu has met the eligibility requirements for the Mega Society, the world's most exclusive high-IQ society, which accepts only those who score in the 99.9999th percentile on IQ tests (Mensa, for example, accepts the top 2 percent).[15]
[edit] References
- ^ 1
- ^ a b c Duffy, Michael (1988-11-28). The Markets Vote. TIME.
- ^ Morse, Susan. "From governor to hog reeve". Portsmouth Herald. March 25, 2007
- ^ George Bush: Letter Accepting the Resignation of John H. Sununu as Chief of Staff to the President
- ^ a b My so-called famous classmate - Salon.com
- ^ "Air Sununu Grounded", Washington Post, 1991-05-10.
- ^ "The control tower takes over Air Sununu.", US News & World Report, 1991-05-20.
- ^ Sununu Travel Records to Be Opened - New York Times
- ^ a b The White House: A Bad Case of the Perks - TIME
- ^ "Too Much Sununu News?; Post Said to Ignore Democrats' Abuses", Washington Post, 1991-06-28.
- ^ Bush abandonment watch, Part 3. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine
- ^ The Austin Chronicle: News: The Loyal Lieutenants: Bush Applies Litmus Test of Allegiance in Choosing Inner Circle
- ^ Monster A-Go Go - Mystery Science Theater 3000 Wiki
- ^ MST3K: The Movie (This Island Earth)
- ^ Chotzinoff, Robin. "It This the Smartest Man in America?", Westword, November 20-26, 1985.
Thompson, D. "Marilyn's Most Vital Statistic", Courier-Mail (Australia), July 5, 1986.
Seipp, Catherine. "Brains -- They’re the smartest people in L.A.", Los Angeles (magazine), November 1987, pp. 210–216.
Anderson, Jack; Dale Van Atta. "Is 176 I.Q. Enough for White House?", Washington Post, November 28, 1988.
Baumgold, Julie. "In the Kingdom of the Brain", New York Magazine, February 6, 1989.
Morris, Scot; Ronald K. Hoeflin. "Mind Games: the hardest IQ test you'll ever love suffering through", Omni magazine, April 1990, pp. 90 ff.
Lichfield, John. "Profile: Fat Man on a Jet Plane: John Sununu", The Independent (London), June 30, 1991, pp. 23.
Derfner, Larry. "It smarts!", The Jerusalem Post, August 8, 2003, p. 5.
Sager, Mike. "The Smartest Man in America", Esquire (magazine), November 1999, pp. 143ff. Retrieved on 2009-09-23.
Introduction to the Hoeflin Tests. Retrieved on 2006-07-29. Similar reports about the actress Uma Thurman are an urban myth.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Vesta M. Roy |
Governor of New Hampshire 1983 – 1989 |
Succeeded by Judd Gregg |
| Preceded by Bill Clinton Arkansas |
Chairman of the National Governor's Association 1987 – 1988 |
Succeeded by Gerald L. Baliles Virginia |
| Preceded by Kenneth Duberstein |
White House Chief of Staff 1989 – 1991 |
Succeeded by Samuel K. Skinner |
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