The winds lay calm on the Caribbean that evening, but 30,000 feet up in a White House jet the President's chief of staff was stirring a political storm. Returning to Washington from the inauguration of Costa Rica's new leader, John Sununu wandered to the rear of the Boeing 707 to schmooze with the traveling press. But first he shed his suit jacket, his title and his name. At his insistence, Sununu was now a "senior White House official."
The conversation quickly turned to the hottest topic of the week: Could Sununu reconcile President Bush's campaign pledge of "no new taxes" with...