By Talia AlbertsThe Daily Northwestern

“I’ll basically be married to the guy, but don’t worry, I won’t sleep with him.”

That’s how Andrew Card, President Bush’s former chief of staff, said he described his job to his wife.

Card, whose term of more than five years was the second-longest of any chief of staff, debated with Leon Panetta, former chief of staff for President Clinton, in front of an audience of about 500 at Cahn Auditorium Tuesday night. The event was sponsored by College Democrats and endorsed by College Republicans.

After a brief introduction, the two men spoke about the role of a chief of staff and their views on the future of their respective parties.

Both men broke the job down to three major points. Panetta said that his goals were establishing a chain of command, ensuring discipline in the White House and creating a focus for the president.

Card said he had focused on “the care and feeding of the president,” helping with policymaking and selling the president’s decisions.

“The relationship between the president and chief of staff has to be one of trust,” Panetta said. “There has to be total loyalty between the president and whoever fills that position.”

Though Card said that prior to his appointment, he and Bush were friends, taking on the position meant that he became “just a staffer.”

Weinberg junior Jeanette Kang said she appreciated being given a description of their jobs in the White House.

“I was most interested when they were describing their jobs,” she said. “I knew what they were on paper, but it was interesting to hear the way (the job of chief of staff) adapted to each president and how (the presidents’) personalities affected the job.”

Near the end of his speech, Panetta addressed current politics.

“What happened in November was essentially a national recall,” he said.

Panetta went on to say that the key to success for both parties is for the president and Congress to work together, even on the war in Iraq.

Card said he was concerned the primary elections of 2008 would focus on which candidate could raise the most money the fastest now that larger states, such as California, are trying to push their primaries forward to as early as Feb. 5.

After Card and Panetta spoke, they answered audience members’ questions on topics ranging from curiosity about disagreements with the presidents to why other chiefs of staff were less successful.

However, the questions that seemed to draw the most attention were centered on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Card, who first told Bush about the attacks, said he applauded the president’s reaction.

“He was with extremely young elementary school students who didn’t have any clue about what was going on,” Card said.

“He didn’t introduce fear to any of them. He also did nothing to demonstrate fear to the cameras or press crew that were watching him, and any fear that he would have demonstrated to those cameras would have satisfied the terrorists.”

Jeff Jablons, a Weinberg junior, said that though the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were addressed, he would have liked to hear more about the Iraq war.

“(I came) because I have a general interest in politics, and I thought it might be interesting hearing an insider’s perspective instead of a politician,” Jablons said.

Panetta congratulated the audience on having an interest in and love of politics.

“This is a great university,” Panetta said. “And at a time when we are facing a world with global competition it is important to train all of you to compete in that world, and I think Northwestern does that really well.”

Reach Talia Alberts at [email protected].