Diary Prequel Package — page 189

Feldbaum, the IG of the DoD during the Carter Administration and his son Harley who is at Hopkins School of Public Health and is very interested in "Health Diplomacy". He has been an admirer of mine for years as a student. I hope to help him and perhaps advise him on career choices. Nov. 30, 2008 - Sunday AM (pouring rain). I had backed out of the Redskins- NY Giants game with Gene Elrod because my daughters were home for Thanksgiving weekend. Got a call from Jay Lefkowitz who is writing a brief history of PEPFAR for a trade journal (forgot which one). He wanted to do a historical fact check with me about the timing of meetings that we had with Josh Bolton, Gary Edson, Kristen Silverberg in the WH. His version of events was strikingly close to my historical memory. During the conversation he asked about the NIH Director job and we reminisced about the Bush years. Interesting fact that he dropped. He related that he was having a conversation with Bush during the time of the NIH Director decision and Bush said, "why not just appoint Tony Fauci". Jay agreed. Jay now casually mentioned that Karl Rove was against my candidacy. He did not say why. I could be that he was against the "dual" appointment or perhaps he was influenced by Sen. Brownback's concern about my stance on fetal tissue and stem cell research. I guess that I will never know. Dec. 6, 2008 - Annual Christmas Party at Sam and Jan Donaldson's home. As usual, great time with the standard cast of characters some of whom are: Colin Powell, Wolf Blitzer (CNN), Bob Barnett, George Will, Ellen and Gerry Sigal (told me that Francis Collins is "aggressively" campaigning for the job of NIH Director. I told her that I preferred to stay at NIAID.), Bob Mueller (FBI), Gen. James Jones (new National Security Advisor for Obama; we spoke about the importance of biodefense and gave him my card). Great time was had! After the Donaldson party went to the National Zoo (Amazonia) for the 50th Birthday party for Greg Folkers thrown by his significant other Sheila Stinson. Dec. 7, 2008 - (Sunday) - got e-mail asking me to call Mike Froman from the Obama Transition Team, wanting to know if I was interested in the NIH Director's job. He said that Obama had mentioned my name to him and asked that he contact me. I told him what I told Aaron Pickrell on Nov. 25 (above) that I felt that I could serve Obama, his administration, and the American people better in my current job and expressed a willingness to work closely with them the way I have with the Bush and Clinton Administrations. He understood and asked if I would be willing to help vet names for them as they narrow the search. I told him that I would be happy to do that. Dec. 9, 2008 - Chris and I went to the VP Mansion for the Annual Christmas Party. Bitter-sweet since this is the last one that I will have gone to the mansion for the Bush Administration and maybe (who knows?) the last visit that I might make to the VP mansion. Chris and I reminisced that the first time we came here was when George H.W. Bush was VP in the early 1980s and how we returned several times for receptions and brunches as the VP and I became friends. Tonight there was the usual cast of people who I had the opportunity to talk to and thank for the years of working together and helping