Thread: Clay Johnson III: The President's Close Friend

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Clay Johnson III: The President's Close Friend
Ronald Kessler
Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Clay Johnson III is one of President Bush's closest friends and the only one working for the administration. His current job is trying to reform the government to make it more effective and efficient.
His influence is enormous. Yet few people outside of the Bush administration have heard of the 6 foot 4 inch tall Texan.
Johnson, 60, was a Bush classmate at Phillips Academy at Andover and one of his roommates at Yale. Bush was the life of the party; Johnson was the straight man. But behind his reserved, no-nonsense demeanor, Johnson harbored a wicked sense of humor.
After Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Johnson became an executive first at PepsiCo's Frito Lay, then Wilson Sporting Goods and Citicorp. From 1983 to 1991, he was president of Horchow Mail Order, which Neiman Marcus acquired in 1988.
"I'm an organizer, a systematizer, a bring method-to-madness, bring order-to-chaos kind of person," Johnson would say.
Johnson was chief operating officer of the Dallas Museum of Art in 1994 when Bush, as a candidate for Texas governor, asked him to be his appointments director. Bush later promoted him to chief of staff.
"I want someone whose primary interest is me - George Bush - and who doesn't hope to parlay this into something and isn't trying to curry favor with this one or that one," Bush told Johnson and his wife, Anne Sewell Johnson, over lunch. Johnson fretted that he didn't know enough about politics.
"I'll take care of the politics," Bush said to him. "You go find the best people."
After Clay Johnson took the job, he acquired the nickname "icebox" or "the refrigerator" because no one could cozy up to him and convince him to lay aside his standards to help their friends. A Texas state legislator once asked Johnson to appoint a few people from his district to some "insignificant" boards, just to "throw my area some bones."
"I am not in the bone-throwing business," Johnson told him.
After his election as president, Bush named Johnson executive director of his transition and then assistant to the president for personnel in the White House.
He was in charge of the effort to help the president select four thousand Cabinet and sub-cabinet officers, executives and middle managers, and part-time board members.
In June 2003, Johnson became deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget with the daunting assignment of trying to make the government more effective and efficient. In that job, he is the chief financial officer, chief information officer, and chief procurement officer of the sprawling federal government.
As Bush's friend since 1961, Johnson continues to have a role as an unofficial advisor.
As long as Bush's assistant, Karen Keller, says the president is free, Johnson is one of a half dozen administration officials who can see the president without a scheduled appointment. He is probably the only person to have spanked Barney, a Scottish terrier and the presidential dog.
"Barney was on the oval carpet making a nuisance of himself," Johnson told me. "So I spanked him and told him, ‘No!' and I put him on the sofa with me. I think that's the only time he's been spanked."
"That shows what a close friend Clay is," said Logan Walters, Bush's former personal assistant, who witnessed the event. "He's the only person I know who could spank the president's dog, inside or outside the Oval Office."
Anne Johnson, whom Johnson began dating in college, is a close friend of Laura Bush. The Johnsons are guests of the Bushes at Camp David, at the Crawford ranch, and at dinner in the White House residence. Preceded by the Secret Service, the Bushes have been to the Johnsons' home in the Spring Valley section of Washington several times.
The president often includes the Johnson's identical twin sons, Robert and Weldon, in special occasions. Both competitive runners, the Johnson sons jointly own LetsRun.com, which bills itself as the No. 1 Web site for serious runners. Robert is the men's long distance running coach at Cornell.
While he is loyal to Bush, Johnson gives remarkably objective advice.
Johnson goes through the official chain of command on most matters, but White House staffers know that if Johnson saw a problem at the White House, he would not be bashful about bringing it to Bush's attention privately.
"Clay is as close to a lifelong friend as the president has I think—high school days, college days, professional experiences," Andrew H. "Andy" Card, Jr., Bush's former chief of staff, told me.
"He's a quiet influence. Clay is not one who is prone to scratch for recognition. If the president doesn't call him, it doesn't bother him at all. But the president gets together with him, and Clay will offer counsel. Sometimes, it's unsolicited. I've witnessed where Clay has said, ‘I know you don't want me to say this, but . . .' And he'll introduce a thought."
Card said he has seen the impact Johnson's observations have had on the president.
"It could be on personnel, for example," Card said. "Sometimes he'll go in the Oval Office, and sometimes he'll ask to see the president alone. And sometimes if it's a handful of advisors that Clay knows well meeting with the president, he'll say, ‘I'll bet they're telling you to do this. I'm going to tell you just the opposite.'
"Clay is not afraid to speak his mind. He has access to the president not just in the Oval Office but up in the residence, through a telephone call, or through his wife Anne talking with Laura."
"Clay has enormous influence when it comes to personnel, administration, and White House operations," said Collister "Terry" Johnson, Jr., also a Bush roommate at Yale. "But when it comes to politics, he has zero interest."
That is one of his strengths, Card said.
"Clay is about as apolitical as anyone can be and still be in politics," Card said.
"As a result, his perspective truly is not the same perspective that a lot of other people have who are around the president. Because he hasn't been a party activist or a passionate political supporter. He's been a passionate Bush supporter. And so sometimes his perspective is very interesting because it comes with appropriate political naivete," emphasizing long-term policy over short-term politics.
Clay Johnson's observations about Bush are illuminating.
Analyzing why Bush makes his trademark smirk or half smile, a gesture that many take as a sign of arrogance, Johnson says it's a manifestation of Bush's inability to act or pretend.
"He's a bad actor, a bad pretender," Johnson told me. "He doesn't get up and say, ‘one and one is two' unless he really knows it's two. What you see is what you get. So when you see him working that lip or showing discomfort, he can't act that away. It means he's bored or perturbed. A real actor would not show that."
As deputy OMB director for management, Johnson took on the seemingly hopeless task of trying to make the government more effective.
His group assesses the effectiveness of government programs and agencies, and in so doing, holds management accountable for improving the way they work. His group has led the effort that has reduced improper government payments—funds going to the wrong person or for wrongful uses — by $7 billion or 17 percent.
It is in the process of identifying and disposing of $9 billion in surplus real property. Johnson is also trying to introduce the revolutionary concept of merit pay to government but is meeting resistance from unions and Congress.
Johnson guides and supports government officials as they try to make the government more efficient and effective.
He also mentors young people who work with and around him. One such person is Eric L. Motley, a State Department official who was spotlighted in a recent Washington Post series on blacks.
Johnson originally brought Motley into the Bush administration as one of his associates. The Post story included one of Johnson's typically candid quotes: "When you first meet Eric, his skin color, it's black," Johnson said. "He's black, but he's been raised by whites and blacks. I think by the way he looks at the world, he feels colorless."
With Johnson's support, Major General Charles E. Williams, who manages the State Department's Overseas Building Program, has cut costs and dramatically improved the program for building embassies and consulates.
To cut down on design costs, Williams, who is retired from the Army Corps of Engineers, began constructing embassies that are identical except for the exteriors. He instigated monthly performance reviews as well. If employees are consistently below par, Williams suggests they look for work elsewhere.
"Clay is an insightful, straightforward, tough quality manager," Williams told me.
"He looks over the stuff and sees the real core of the problem. He doesn't get bogged down in little issues. He sees the big issues. And then he begins to wrestle with and manage the big issues, which ultimately gets to the end game.
"When dealing with the big issues, he sprinkles a heavy dose of performance measurement and measurable milestones as you go. That yields turnabout and causes big changes in the way the government works. He handles it with common sense. He is very good with giving precise, quick feedback."
Before Williams began making changes, the program completed one embassy or consulate every other year and started one a year.
"Now I am starting 13 a year and completing a dozen a year," Williams said. "Those are the results. To do that I needed a Clay Johnson, a person in OMB whom I could call, cutting through a lot of layers. I could go to Clay informally and say, ‘This is coming, what do you think? Am I on the right track?' He is very up-front: ‘Yes, Chuck, proceed, please.' Or, ‘Let's have lunch to talk about it.'"
For the first time, Williams said, "We had someone who wanted to do things in a businesslike way. For Clay, it's all about taxpayers: What did you do with their money?"

I wonder who fired the judges:

Anne Johnson, whom Johnson began dating in college, is a close friend of Laura Bush. The Johnsons are guests of the Bushes at Camp David, at the Crawford ranch, and at dinner in the White House residence. Preceded by the Secret Service, the Bushes have been to the Johnsons' home in the Spring Valley section of Washington several times.
The president often includes the Johnson's identical twin sons, Robert and Weldon, in special occasions. Both competitive runners, the Johnson sons jointly own LetsRun.com, which bills itself as the No. 1 Web site for serious runners. Robert is the men's long distance running coach at Cornell.
While he is loyal to Bush, Johnson gives remarkably objective advice.
Johnson goes through the official chain of command on most matters, but White House staffers know that if Johnson saw a problem at the White House, he would not be bashful about bringing it to Bush's attention privately.
"Clay is as close to a lifelong friend as the president has I think�high school days, college days, professional experiences," Andrew H. "Andy" Card, Jr., Bush's former chief of staff, told me.
"He's a quiet influence. Clay is not one who is prone to scratch for recognition. If the president doesn't call him, it doesn't bother him at all. But the president gets together with him, and Clay will offer counsel. Sometimes, it's unsolicited. I've witnessed where Clay has said, �I know you don't want me to say this, but . . .' And he'll introduce a thought."
Card said he has seen the impact Johnson's observations have had on the president.
"It could be on personnel, for example," Card said. "Sometimes he'll go in the Oval Office, and sometimes he'll ask to see the president alone. And sometimes if it's a handful of advisors that Clay knows well meeting with the president, he'll say, �I'll bet they're telling you to do this. I'm going to tell you just the opposite.'

Maybe, Clay Johnson