European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 30, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Voices miss manners minds Inman s resignation letter by Judith Martin special to the Washington Post traditional form for letter of resignation from a Public official to the president of the United states dear or. President. It is with great sadness and deep regret that i must inform you that for personal reasons i no longer find myself Able to serve my country in the position that you did me the Honor of conferring upon me. Health and family matters forbid my carry ing out these duties but i will always be proud and grateful that you saw fit to entrust me with the privilege of serving the nation and assisting with the Noble efforts of your administration. Respectfully yours. Revised form dear or. Down in the polls let me Tell you what you can do with your stupid Job which i never wanted in the first place. You Don t deserve me. I look Forward to getting Rich in the private sector while you ruin the Public one. Rejoicing that i m outta Here traditional form of acknowledgement of a letter of resignation from  oficial by the presi Dent of the United states dear or. Appointee your departure from government is an incomparable loss for the country As Well As a personal one for me. Your distinguished record of Public service has earned you the gratitude of your fellow citizens and the esteem of those of us who Are most familiar with your great talents and dedication. Please accept my warmest wishes for your Good health and give my kind regards to your Lovely family. Sincerely yours ?."  " revise form dear or think you a  getting out of government is the first real Public service you be Ever performed. My Only regret is that sending you Home is a dirty trick on your Long suffer in wife. X wishing Good riddance to bad rubbish ". In a society that professes to value Candor disdain euphemisms and despise hypocrisy even the most formal conventions were bound to change. In the last traditional Exchange the nation May Ever wit Ness president Clinton and Secretary As pin traded verbal letters that followed the old form the fired one professing his desire to resign and the firer professing his incalculable regret at this decision to which he will nonetheless yield. But the new age dawned when retired adm. Bobby Ray Inman acted at the prompting of his Comfort level which is the rough equivalent of what used to be called a conscience and injected his True feelings into his letter of withdrawal As a nominee for the position of Secretary of defense. No one should have been surprised. This is after All an administration that opened with a Retreat where the president provided facilitators to encourage members of his Cabinet to express their inner most feelings. Adm. Inman s innermost feelings were that he was being picked on by bullies that he had done enough for his country that he was t All that desperate to embellish his resume and that the Best that could be said for the president was that he understood what had gone wrong in his administration and finally seemed ready to do his Job properly. Great appreciation. For your Clear understanding of what Bobby Ray Inman went from president Clinton s future Secretary of defense to withdrawn nominee. Has not gone Well in the National Security Arena in the first year of your presidency. I am persuaded that you Are fully ready and capable of being the commander in chief this country must have the Admiral is surely not the first Public servant to feel unappreciated and sulky. Can the people who Are now declaring him paranoid honestly say that they have never harboured such sentiments so Why did t everyone congratulate adm. Inman for his frankness and after he got All that out of his system Why did he still look so pinched is it possible that we really do value decorum above unrestrained self expression and that no Boss not even the president would urge his staff to express All their feelings unreservedly if he did not assume that they would still be bound by etiquette s demands for respect and tact the tradition of Leav ing High government service requires that face be saved All around and this cannot be achieved with Complete openness. It is understood that the presi Dent will not be made to look As if he either hired a nitwit or created a Scapegoat and the departing offi Cial will be allowed to depart with his reputation and enough Praise and photographs to furnish a Fine Pri vate office. For that reason almost no one is Ever fired. Peo ple go voluntarily no matter How surprised they Are to find themselves suddenly volunteering and for reasons that have nothing to do with inconvenience or incompetence. Appreciation and regret Are expressed on both sides and a respectable although not necessarily plausible explanation is made Public. John Mitchell resigned As director of president Nixon s re election committee right after the water Gate burglars were caught to devote More attention to the obligation which must come first the Happi Ness and welfare of my wife and daughter Atten Tion Martha Mitchell later claimed was not benign. President Johnson s press Secretary George Reedy left to devote More attention to his Hammer toe. The convention allows room for creativity. The truly creative can even get away with inserting into the formula Small digs at the president which the president is supposed to be above returning in kind because he is presidential and besides he got what he wanted. When president Carter upended his Cabinet in 1979, All the exit letters contained the required Polit Nesses. But two people made sly references to the president s eagerness for their departure the Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal stat ing appreciation for the president s agreeing with his own assessment that the time has come for me to return to private life and the Secretary of Energy James Schlesinger acknowledging that it would be far better for you to have in place one who is less scarred by earlier  their return letters All contained the president s appreciation for their services. But to the Secretary of transportation. Brock Adams who added a wish generally associated with sarcasm i Hope you find happiness in your Job president Carter altered the phrase about appreciation for him to appreciation for the accomplishments of our nation during your service As Secretary of  within the convention the greatest insult permitted is cur Ness. When Donald Regan left As presi Dent Reagan s chief of staff he conveyed bitterness by writing merely i hereby resign As chief of staff to the president of the United  but when the chairman of the National endow ment for the arts John Frohnmayer tried to do something similar in his requested letter of Resig nation to president Bush he was talked out of it by the Secretary to the Cabinet. As he recounts in his Book leaving town alive she warned him that his resignation letter last october i told you of my desire to return to private life. Accordingly i submit my resignation effective May 1, 1992." was awfully Curt and that it might leave the wrong impression " Frohnmayer yielded to her pleading and added the required formula i have appreciated the Opportunity to serve you and the arts you know How much your personal support has meant to me during these difficult times. You and your administration have accomplished a great Deal and i m sure the Best is yet to  president Bush sent him a Curt reply omitting the formula expression of regret at his departure. All that was missing was manners. " Courm Page 20 sunday january 30, 1994