DoD News: Wolfowitz and Rumsfield had in-depth Discussion before Wolfie Took The Job

DoD News: Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz Interview with Baltimore Sun - April 26: "Monday, April 26, 2002

Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz Interview with Baltimore Sun - April 26

Q: You mentioned earlier that you could do Rich Armitage's job, he could do your job. There was talk early on at the Bush election that you were going to go to State and Armitage would come here. Can you go back and discuss how you ended up here and --

Wolfowitz: Because Rumsfeld offered me the job. Very simple.

I think there was a lot of talent in that group that could have ended up in all kinds of places.

Q: Can you give us a sense of what he said to you when he said I want you for X reason or I want you to look into this or that or this is what you bring to the table, or this is what I want you to handle --

Wolfowitz: We had a long discussion, which I think --

Q: -- was one of the big --

Wolfowitz: It definitely was. We talked a lot about both what the substance of his job would be and different ways in which a deputy could help him get it done.

Q: Can you shed any light on the particulars of that? Working on the Hill as opposed to --

Wolfowitz: There's a certain inside/outside. Deputies work on the inside and secretaries of Defense work on the outside. The truth of the matter is Rumsfeld works on anything that's interesting. It's probably in some ways -- the only one I've seen up close was Cheney and his Deputy Atwood. There was a pretty distinct division of labor. Atwood did certain things that Cheney didn't pay much attention to, and that is not the way Rumsfeld and I work. It's much more closely intermingled. But he does, he does press conferences, I do them only occasionally.

Q: Does he like to have his fingers in everything pretty much?

Wolfowitz: He's very, he does. He is the energizer bunny that keeps things going.

You've probably heard that one of the, it's not a secret to talk about snowflakes is it? Something I have learned from him, though I can't keep up with him, is the use of the dictaphone. You go into him and you'll give him an idea or ask him a question and before you know it he's picked up the dictaphone. He's talking to it as though he were talking to somebody on the phone and out comes this reasonably clear memo which he will then edit, but sometimes it doesn't even need a lot of editing. I've sort of learned how to do that. But he, the result is a constant flow of memos to his staff, hence the term snowflakes. Do this, do that, have you thought about this. And he moves things constantly. It's a very high level of activity

Q: When he offered you the job, did you have to think twice about it?

Wolfowitz: Not at that point, no. It was very much what I wanted to do.

And I'm happy to say this, too. When I saw him at his confirmation testimony and I saw how good he was, I said I'm really glad I'm your number two. It felt very good to be backing up somebody of that quality, and even more so since September 11th."