Article that describes how James D. O'Neill III became a judge in New Hampshire. Check out www.nhdrugtaskforce.com to learn more about my case.

1. The Washington Post
A 'PUSSYCAT' WITH CLAWS, SUNUNU LEAVING MARK IN
HOME STATE
By Michael Rezendes
December 24, 1988
CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire Gov. John H. Sununu (R), who has called himself "a pussycat" to
defuse speculation that his combative nature will hamper his effectiveness as White House chief of staff,
has not changed his style in his home state, where he continues to dominate state government.
On Wednesday, Sununu presided over a meeting of the state Executive Council, a body that approves
appointments and expenditures, and alternately displayed his trademark wit and haughty personality.
After announcing the absence of a councilor who had broken her leg the previous evening, Sununu
cracked, "I suspect it was the result of one of the other councilors trying to persuade her to vote one
way or another."
Later, when a reporter asked whether he had checked an education appointment with incoming
governor and fellow Republican Judd Gregg, Sununu snapped, "I didn't check any of my appointments
with the governor-elect."
For local political operatives -- many of whom insist that the 49-year-old governor winks when he
compares himself with a kitten -- the performance was vintage Sununu.
"John Sununu is not Garfield," said state Democratic Party Chairman J. Joseph Grandmaison. "He is a
hungry tiger."
Sununu, who will complete his third two-year term at noon Jan. 5, has accomplished an unusual
political feat here: While creating a rash of sore feelings, he has managed to put an indelible stamp on
state government.
And, since President-elect George Bush named him to head the White House staff last month, he has
continued to trample the toes of adversaries while bending state government to his will.
For example, Sununu recently secured the nomination of his legal counsel, James O'Neill, for a state
superior court judgeship, despite opposition from the state bar association.
Sununu's differences with the bar go back to his early days as governor when he ended a tradition of

2. submitting the names of judicial nominees to its board of governors for review.
But Sununu appeared to pour salt on an old wound last month when O'Neill ignored a bar association
questionnaire and turned down an association request for an interview.
"It was the first time someone has declined to do that in my memory," said Stephen Tober, bar
association president.
The bar went ahead with its evaluation and, in a letter to Sununu, Tober wrote that many lawyers had
described O'Neill as "demeaning" and "intimidating," and that the association's board of governors
"could find no evidence of the requisite fairness and respect . . . that are the hallmarks of our courts."
Sununu, in typical fashion, counterattacked by saying that the bar's assessment sprang from bitterness
over being cut out of the judicial nominating process. "I keep telling them that I've read the constitution
as clearly as I could and I don't find them mentioned in there," he told The Union Leader, the state's
largest newspaper.
On Dec. 7, when the Executive Council approved O'Neill's nomination 4 to 1, the vote did more than
affirm Sununu's ability to weather vociferous criticism here. It also underscored his unprecedented role
in shaping the state's judiciary.
Since beginning his first term in 1983, Sununu has appointed 16 of the state's 25 superior court judges.
At the state supreme court, he has appointed two of five judges and selected the chief justice.
"It's a tremendous number," Tober said. "He's leaving a major impression here."
While making his mark on state government, Sununu has not hesitated to ruffle the feathers of leaders
in his party, some of whom have tried to respond in kind.
Incoming Rep. Chuck Douglas (R), for instance, at one time displayed in his law office a ceramic statue
of Sununu wearing a crown.
Douglas, who explained that he was miffed at Sununu for vetoing legislation that would have broadened
the state's public records law, said he does not plan to show the statue in Washington.
Political observers here said that Sununu also has a testy relationship with Gregg, in part because
Sununu refuses to review state appointments with him.
Gregg, a four-term congressman whose father, Hugh, was governor, hasn't publicly criticized Sununu
for declining to cede any authority before Jan. 5, but tension with Sununu surfaced recently when

3. Gregg seemed to complain about Sununu's dual roles as governor and incoming White House chief of
staff.
At issue was a presidential order signed last month that empowers the federal government to take
charge of local evacuation measures around nuclear power plants, a move that could ease licensure of
the Seabrook nuclear power plant on the New Hampshire coast, which Sununu supports.
"This action, which I strongly disagree with, has obviously been influenced by new pressures in
Washington," Gregg said in a statement. "The way in which this order was resurrected and floated
through the back channels of the White House is totally inappropriate."
Sununu denied the charge and Gregg has backed away from the statement. But observers said hard
feelings between the two persist.
Much of the ill-will engendered by Sununu stems from his practice of personally dressing down officials
who he thinks are standing in his way, Sununu's critics said.
While few are willing to discuss the experience, one example surfaced recently when the weekly Boston
Phoenix reported that Sununu earlier this year berated a federal wildlife official who had recommended
that federal authorities require environmental review of plans to expand a ski resort managed by a
Sununu campaign contributor.
"He certainly let me know he disagreed with me," said Gordon Beckett, New England supervisor of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, adding that the environmental review opposed by Sununu is now under
way.
Even Sununu's admirers agree that a tounge-lashing is a ready weapon in Sununu's administrative
arsenal.
"John gets very restless with bureaucratic inertia," said Thomas Rath, state Republican party
treasurer and a Sununu booster. "People in the bureaucracy can expect to hear from him directly."
Because of his confrontational approach, local opinion is divided over whether Sununu will succeed in
Washington.
Grandmaison, the Democratic state party chairman, said, "his success depends on his ability to
understand the dark side of his personality and to account for it."
But Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), who is among Sununu's most important allies here and in
Washington, said Sununu's acerbic style may be the perfect complement to Bush's more decorous

4. manner.
"You need someone to kick a little rear end once in a while," he said.
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