YOU NEED CONFIDENCE, BUT NOT TOO MUCH AT THE WHITE HOUSE

The words "full confidence" should have been a hint. To John Sununu, it probably was the hint.

Only Tuesday morning, the White House press officials said that President Bush had "full confidence" in his beleaguered chief of staff, John Sununu.

This came a week after President Bush had given Sununu the thumbs up, Barbara Bush had publicly expressed her support and every soul living or working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was publicly giving out the company line that the chief of staff remained in good graces.

Even Millie the dog wagged her tail eagerly when the question came up.

That's what you call "full confidence."

Despite all this confidence, President Bush, would you accept Sununu's resignation if he offered it?

Well, no quicker than he accepted Thurgood Marshall's.

Don't be surprised if etymologists say the name Sununu has a Greek root that means "dead man." He has been terminal for some time, a corpse still on the federal payroll.

When reporters start asking on a daily basis when the chief of staff is going to be fired and especially if it is just 11 months before an election you can bet the chief of staff will be fired.

John Sununu was a powerful man at the White House; you don't relinquish a job as one of 50 state governors to be a toady. He managed the president's time, influenced much of the policy made and said "no" when his boss wanted it said ... and sometimes when he didn't want it said.

Trouble was, Sununu carried himself, by many accounts, as an arrogant bully. He trusted the taxpayers to pick up his tabs. His dentistry and appetite for antiques became budget items. He was nasty to those he worked with and merely overbearing to political friends.

That his political enemies got worse treatment didn't matter after a point; it was enough that Sununu was treating his allies with such contempt.

None of this counted so much when things were going well, when America was kicking the daylights out of Iraq and the Soviet Union was breaking into pieces. Sununu could strong-arm his way through the day and fend off the bad press notices.

Suddenly, however, the bloom was off Bush's rose, and folks in the nation's capital (and within the president's immediate orbit) were groping for a reason why.

Hey, they decided, this Sununu is a jerk. Maybe he's the reason things keep getting botched.

When questions are asked daily, the speculation grows ... in turn feeding the questions, in turn feeding more speculation.

As this animal grows, there is the proclamation that the man who has buzzards waiting in attendance, hovering over his crippled career, has the "full confidence" of the chief executive.

If a New England version of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is ever staged, you could cast Sununu as Big Daddy. He has no problem sniffing out mendacity.

Once he heard how much faith his employer had in him (and heard it, and heard it again), Sununu knew his days were numbered. He surrendered Tuesday with a full cartridge of confidence in his rifle; he knew they were blanks.

When Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was being assailed for making remarks that many viewed as racist, a higher-up at CBS was quoted as saying the gambler's words were "reprehensible."

Snyder knew at that point he was through at CBS. His quote was memorable: "You don't come back from reprehensible"

John Sununu understood this Tuesday but in a slightly twisted way. At the White House, you don't come back from "full confidence."