Thursday, October 16, 2003

Had breakfast (at his invitation) with Jay Lefkowitz at the White House Mess to say goodbye. He is leaving as Director of Domestic Policy Council to return to his law firm in its NYC branch. He will likely return after 2 years for the President’s 2nd term (if this occurs). We had a great conversation in which he mentioned how honored he was to work with me on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the MTCT plan and to a lesser extent on the stem cell issue. I sincerely told him that he was second to none in people that I have worked with at the WH over the past 19 years. He asked my help in making sure that the AIDS Plan does not get derailed by the mischief of USAID in trying to lobby the legislation such that power is taken away from Randy Tobias and he would not be given an independent account.