Sununu Agonistes

By DAVID ELLIS/

Close advisers to George Bush are grousing ever louder about John Sununu's bullying style. They complain that the White House chief of staff is unable and unwilling to play the crucial "outside game" of congressional and public persuasion. What's worse, Sununu prevents Bush from hearing frank counsel from savvier advisers on domestic policy, which hampered the White House's ability to handle the budget crisis. The problem isn't access; Bush still sees many domestic advisers. But Sununu has most of them scared to disagree with him. One Sununu tool is aide Ed Rogers, who spends much of his time wielding a yellow highlighting pen, marking up articles critical of his boss and guessing the identities of the reporter's sources. Sununu then harasses the hapless suspects.

With reporting by DANIEL S. LEVY