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American Morning

Minding Your Business: You Snooze... You Get Nominated

Aired December 10, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: John Snow was under the microscope today, the other half of the team? What's shaping up?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Steven Friedman has yet to be named by the president, but apparently he will be the choice of President Bush to be the new chief economic adviser. We checked out a little bit in his career, he was the ex-chairman of Goldman Sachs, senior partner there, helped run the firm.

And interesting enough, Bill, if you go back to the early 90's when he was in charge, the firm, the Wall Street giant, really hit a very major rough patch in 1994. In fact, some people suggest that he was sort of moved out at that point, because it was such a terrible year for Goldman. Interestingly enough, we did a story at "Fortune" on stamina in 1994, how important it is for executives, and we used him as an example as someone who had run out of steam, Steven Friedman, dosing off in an important conference in Germany tipped him off that he might have been doing little bit too much, and at that point, he stepped aside, moved off the screen there from Goldman Sachs. I certainly hope he's recharged his battery now over the ensuing eight years if he intends to take this job.

HEMMER: But If he goes into this job at the White House, it's a significant role. A lot of people don't give a lot of attention and credit to it, but indeed, it has significant power.

SERWER: It's a critical role, because it brings together the various players within the administration coordinating economic policy.

Interestingly, Bill, Goldman Sachs, a lot of people have come from Goldman Sachs and gone to Washington, including Robert Rubin, and John Corzine, the senator from Germany was also the CEO of Goldman Sachs, and a very important behind-the-scenes player I want to mention at the White House is a guy named Josh Bolton, who is the deputy chief of staff there, very critical person in terms of moving things around. The deputy chief of staff, of course, is played by Bradley Whitford on "The West Wing." So if you watch "The West Wing," that's the guy who really kind of moves the chess pieces around, and I got to mention that Bradley Whitford is the brother of David Whitford, a writer at "Fortune" and "FSB" right here in the building.

We'll be watching this. It will be interesting to see if Steven Friedman actually gets tapped by the president today or tomorrow.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: See you later, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired December 10, 2002 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: John Snow was under the microscope today, the other half of the team? What's shaping up?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Steven Friedman has yet to be named by the president, but apparently he will be the choice of President Bush to be the new chief economic adviser. We checked out a little bit in his career, he was the ex-chairman of Goldman Sachs, senior partner there, helped run the firm.

And interesting enough, Bill, if you go back to the early 90's when he was in charge, the firm, the Wall Street giant, really hit a very major rough patch in 1994. In fact, some people suggest that he was sort of moved out at that point, because it was such a terrible year for Goldman. Interestingly enough, we did a story at "Fortune" on stamina in 1994, how important it is for executives, and we used him as an example as someone who had run out of steam, Steven Friedman, dosing off in an important conference in Germany tipped him off that he might have been doing little bit too much, and at that point, he stepped aside, moved off the screen there from Goldman Sachs. I certainly hope he's recharged his battery now over the ensuing eight years if he intends to take this job.

HEMMER: But If he goes into this job at the White House, it's a significant role. A lot of people don't give a lot of attention and credit to it, but indeed, it has significant power.

SERWER: It's a critical role, because it brings together the various players within the administration coordinating economic policy.

Interestingly, Bill, Goldman Sachs, a lot of people have come from Goldman Sachs and gone to Washington, including Robert Rubin, and John Corzine, the senator from Germany was also the CEO of Goldman Sachs, and a very important behind-the-scenes player I want to mention at the White House is a guy named Josh Bolton, who is the deputy chief of staff there, very critical person in terms of moving things around. The deputy chief of staff, of course, is played by Bradley Whitford on "The West Wing." So if you watch "The West Wing," that's the guy who really kind of moves the chess pieces around, and I got to mention that Bradley Whitford is the brother of David Whitford, a writer at "Fortune" and "FSB" right here in the building.

We'll be watching this. It will be interesting to see if Steven Friedman actually gets tapped by the president today or tomorrow.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: See you later, Bill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com