John H. Sununu

Infobox Governor
name = John Henry Sununu


order = 85^th
office = Governor of New Hampshire
term_start = 1983
term_end = 1989
lieutenant =
predecessor =Vesta M. Roy
successor =Judd Gregg
order2 =14^th
title2 =White House Chief of Staff
term_start2 =1989
term_end2 =1991
president2 =George H.W. Bush
predecessor2=Ken Duberstein
successor2 =Samuel K. Skinner
birth_date = birth date and age|1939|7|2
birth_place = Havana, Cuba
death_date =
death_place =
party = Republican
spouse =
profession = Mechanical engineer
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.

Early life

Sununu was born in Havana, Cuba to John Saleh Sununu, an international film distributor, and Victoria Dada. [ [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~battle/senators/sununu.htm 1 ] ] He is Roman Catholic and has Lebanese Maronite background.

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.

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.

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 [http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19900521,00.html "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, at the behest of New Hampshire senator Warren Rudman. "The Wall Street Journal" described the events leading up to the appointment of the "liberal jurist" in a 2000 editorial, saying Rudman in his "Yankee Republican liberalism" took "pride in recounting how he sold Mr. Souter to gullible White House chief of staff John Sununu as a confirmable conservative. Then they both sold the judge to President Bush, who wanted above all else to avoid a confirmation battle [after Robert Bork] ."cite news
title=Chief Justice Souter?
work=Wall Street Journal
date=2000-02-29
url=
accessdate=2008-06-27 ] Rudman wrote in his memoir that he had "suspected all along" that Souter would not "overturn activist liberal precedents."cite news
title=David Hackett Souter: Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court
author=Tinsley E. Yarbrough
publisher=Oxford University Press
date=2005
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mvV0cVeWVmUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=david+souter+%22home+run%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0
accessdate=2008-06-27 ] Sununu later said that he had "a lot of disappointment" about Souter's positions on the Court and would have preferred him to be more similar to Justice Antonin Scalia.

Television

Sununu co-hosted CNN's nightly "Crossfire" from March 1992 until February 1998.

Political positions

Sununu holds deeply conservative economic and social viewscite web |author=Duffy, Michael|coauthor=Goodgame, Dan|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956398-2,00.html|title= The Markets Vote |publisher="TIME"|date=1988-11-28] and as an engineer, he supports the expansion of nuclear energy. He is fiercely against the imposition of new taxes.

Business

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.

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 (H.W.) Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

Personal life

He is married to the former Nancy Hayes, and they have eight children, including U.S. Senator John E. Sununu. In recent years, he moved to Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He and his wife were subsequently elected as the town's honorary hog reeves and poundkeepers.Morse, Susan. " [http://archive.seacoastonline.com/news/03252007/nhnews-25SUNUNU.html From governor to hog reeve] ". "Portsmouth Herald". March 25, 2007]

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). [cite news
first=Robin
last=Chotzinoff
title=It This the Smartest Man in America?
publisher=Westword
date=November 20-26, 1985 cite news
first=D
last=Thompson
title=Marilyn's Most Vital Statistic
publisher=Courier-Mail (Australia)
date=July 5, 1986 cite news
first=Catherine
last=Seipp
title=Brainsndash They’re the smartest people in L.A.
publisher=Los Angeles (magazine)
pages=210–216
date=November 1987 cite news
first=Jack
last=Anderson
coauthors=Dale Van Atta
title=Is 176 I.Q. Enough for White House?
publisher=Washington Post
date=November 28, 1988 cite news
author=Baumgold, Julie
date=February 6, 1989
title=In the Kingdom of the Brain
publisher=New York Magazine
desc = This article also discusses Dr Hoeflin and the Mega Society. cite news
last=Morris
first=Scot
coauthors=Ronald K. Hoeflin
title=Mind Games: the hardest IQ test you'll ever love suffering through
publisher=Omni magazine
pages=90 ff
date=April 1990 cite news
first=John
last=Lichfield
title=Profile: Fat Man on a Jet Plane: John Sununu
publisher=The Independent (London)
pages=23
date=June 30, 1991 cite news
last=Derfner
first=Larry
title=It smarts!
page=5
publisher=The Jerusalem Post
date=August 8, 2003 cite news
title=The Smartest Man in America
last=Sager
first=Mike
publisher=Esquire (magazine)
date=November 1999
pages=143ff
url=http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/Esquire/1999/11/01/171647?ba=a&bi=1&bp=7
accessdate=2009-09-23 cite web
url=http://cubfiction.com/index_sub_iq_test.htm
title=Introduction to the Hoeflin Tests
accessdate=2006-07-29Similar reports about the actress Uma Thurman are an urban myth.]

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"). He later reversed his position on this issue and supported the Republicans' pro-Israel 1988 platform. Sununu is of partial Palestinian and Lebanese descent.

Sununu resigned as White House Chief of Staff on December 3, 1991, effective December 15, 1991. [ [http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20294 George Bush: Letter Accepting the Resignation of John H. Sununu as Chief of Staff to the President ] ] His resignation is chiefly blamed on a controversy involving his personal use of government military aircraft, [http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2004/06/01/colin/index.html?pn=2 My so-called famous classmate - Salon.com ] ] a scandal which was termed "Air Sununu".cite news |url= |title= Air Sununu Grounded |publisher="Washington Post"|date=1991-05-10] Sununu reportedly took personal trips, for skiing and other purposes, and classified them as official, for purposes such as conservation or promoting the Thousand Points of Light. "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." Sununu had paid the government only $892 for his more than $615,000 worth of military jet travel.cite news |url= |title=The control tower takes over Air Sununu. |publisher="US News & World Report"|date=1991-05-20] 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. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D6133AF930A15757C0A967958260 Sununu Travel Records to Be Opened - New York Times ] ] Sununu became the subject of much late-night television humor over the incident. 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. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,973309,00.html The White House: A Bad Case of the Perks - TIME ] ] Sununu then sent the car and driver back to Washington unoccupied while he returned on a corporate jet. In the course of one week, 45 newspapers ran editorials on Sununu, nearly all of them critical of his actions.cite news |url= |title=Too Much Sununu News?; Post Said to Ignore Democrats' Abuses |publisher="Washington Post"|date=1991-06-28]

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. However, the reimbursements were at commercial rates, which are about one-tenth the cost of the actual flights; one ski trip to Vail, Colorado alone had cost taxpayers $86,330.cite news |url= |title= The flights of Air Sununu; the White House chief of staff mixed politics and playtime on some of his 'official' trips. (John Sununu) |publisher="US News & World Report"|date=1991-05-06]

However, other sources claim that Sununu's departure was related to the president's declining approval ratings, [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2128748/ Bush abandonment watch, Part 3. - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine ] ] or George W. Bush's belief that Sununu did not have his father's best interests at heart. [ [http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A76395 The Austin Chronicle: News: The Loyal Lieutenants: Bush Applies Litmus Test of Allegiance in Choosing Inner Circle ] ] .

In pop culture

The 1991 police comedy film "" 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" [http://mst3k.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_A-Go_Go Monster A-Go Go - Mystery Science Theater 3000 Wiki ] ] and then again during "", [http://mst3k.booyaka.com/episodes/guides/references/M01.shtml MST3K: The Movie (This Island Earth) ] ] 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 is featured in a "Dilbert" comic strip in which Dilbert suggests that Dogbert not start frothing at the mouth and barking whenever attractive women are near. Dogbert responds with, "That's just my John Sununu impression."

ee also

*United States Senate election in New Hampshire, 2008

References

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