Laura Bush’s Chief of Staff

Written by Melanie D. G. Kaplan Wednesday, August 25 2010

Anita McBride, chief of staff for Laura Bush

In the White House, the urgent always trumps the important. That's the attitude Anita McBride adopted while working for three administrations, most recently, as Laura Bush's chief of staff.

But at home, the important often prevails. Especially when it comes to meatballs.

"It was a Saturday morning, during the first six months [of her chief of staff position], and I was making breakfast with the kids," says McBride, the daughter of Italian immigrants. "My daughter said, 'I don’t like meatballs.' I said, 'You’re Italian. You have to like meatballs.'"

Overwhelmed with memories of her Sunday family dinners as a child, McBride went to the store that morning to buy ingredients for making pasta and meatball sauce, which she used to make with her grandmother. Making dinner became the family activity that day. Thereafter, her daughter not only changed her mind about meatballs, but she began helping her mother mix the meat, while her son rolled them into balls. And McBride chalked up the resuscitation of a dying tradition.

Raised by her grandparents after losing her mother at age 3, McBride learned at a young age to overcome difficult situations and solve problems. She impressed her peers as early as eighth grade, at Holy Rosary Catholic School in Bridgeport, Conn., when they voted her Most Pleasing Personality and Most Likely to Succeed. These characteristics proved vital during her time in the White House.

After serving as director of White House personnel under Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush from 1987 to 1992, she returned to the White House in 2001 as acting director of White House personnel for President George W. Bush, sometimes working until 1 or 2 a.m.

But it was the call that McBride received from the White House after the 2004 election that was most life changing. She had just gotten into the rhythm of working as a part-time political appointee for the State Department.

"My children were 4 and 7, and it was a really terrific balance," she says. But one week after the election, she got a call from Mrs. Bush's chief of staff.

"I was in the car pool line at school when I picked up the phone, and when the White House operator said it was Mrs. Bush's chief of staff [who was moving back to Texas], I dropped the phone," McBride remembers. She learned that Mrs. Bush wanted to talk to her about the job. Excited and still in shock, she told the chief of staff she would call her back in the morning. She called her husband, who was traveling for work in Argentina.

"Without missing a beat, he said, 'You've got to go for it,'" McBride says. "He said, 'I know what you’re thinking, but we'll make it work.'" Her husband, who had served as the former President Bush's personal aide, knew the demands of the job McBride was considering. So with her husband’s blessing, she met with Mrs. Bush in the private residence.

The First Lady was clear about her second term goals, which included visiting Afghanistan and doing more global work. McBride’s experience at the State Department, plus her familiarity with the White House, meant that she was well prepared for the job. Mrs. Bush made the decision to hire McBride in less than two weeks.

One of the first calls McBride made was to White House Nannies Inc. She also hired a housekeeper, so between the two, McBride had her own staff to manage a household that she rarely saw during the week.

"I'd get home at 9:30 or 10 at night, and ,when I was traveling, I'd be gone for a week at a time," says McBride, who directed trips to 67 countries for the First Lady in four years (compared to only 10 countries Mrs. Bush visited during the first term). McBride accompanied her on most of the trips. She says it was the busiest, most exhausting, and most exhilarating time of her life.

McBride was responsible for the First Lady's policy, press, correspondence, scheduling, and speechwriting. She planned and executed Mrs. Bush's three trips to Afghanistan, directed the planning of two international conferences on global literacy and education, and directed the planning of the first-ever White House Summit on Malaria. Her one regret: that she didn't get Mrs. Bush to Iraq to talk about education for women and children.

Meanwhile, McBride missed much at home: Her husband represented the family at the children's back-to-school nights and games, and he took the kids on spring breaks and summer vacations. Although most of McBride’s salary went to paying nannies, she says she was fortunate to have two young women who not only kept her kids' lives on track but "kept them whole, loved ,and nurtured."

Weekends at home were sacred: a time to recharge her battery. But after enough recharges, even the best batteries start to weaken. McBride knew her chief of staff schedule wasn’t sustainable, and after the term ended in 2009, she welcomed the return to a slower pace.

As of this summer, McBride's life is her own again. In addition to cooking more, she walks regularly with friends in her Northwest Washington neighborhood and accompanies her kids to and from school. She finds joy in little things like shopping for school supplies and ordering textbooks.

McBride still leads a busy professional life, continuing to work with Mrs. Bush, serving as a senior adviser to the George W. Bush Institute, and sitting on several nonprofit boards. She was recently named executive in residence at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, where she is planning a 2011 conference on first ladies.

For now, juggling various jobs and being around for her family is the perfect antidote to a position that took over her life for four years. But McBride is open to more surprises. "I continue to feel there’s something else out there for me," she says. "I just don’t know what it is yet."

Melanie D.G. Kaplan is a contributing editor at SmartPlanet/CBS Interactive and a regular contributor to The Washington Post, where she writes about road trips with her beagle. She lives Washington, D.C.