Michele Davis, an assistant secretary of the Treasury, had the thankless, and futile, chore of trying to keep O'Neill on-message in his public appearances. The Treasury secretary rarely kept to the talking points favored by the White House political operation headed by Karl Rove and Karen Hughes. Before the unveiling of the President's budget, on Feb. 27, Davis pleaded with O'Neill to stick to the script. "This event, more than anything you've participated in to date, requires that you be monotonously on-message."