Trip Uproar Hurts Sununu but Loss of Job Is Unlikely : Ethics: Presidential advisers say Bush probably will not remove an errant staff member while he is under fire.

WASHINGTON —  The controversy over Chief of Staff John H. Sununu’s leisure and political travel has weakened his standing in the White House, but presidential advisers and other informed observers predicted Thursday that a chastened Sununu will retain his job for now.

The precariousness of Sununu’s situation was explained by one person close to the White House who said that, although Bush insisted Wednesday that his top aide is doing a “first-class job,” the chief of staff actually “is one slight screw-up from having to leave immediately.”

Still, insiders who share this view usually note that Bush rates loyalty to his staff among the most important personal attributes, along with integrity and unquestionable adherence to standards of ethical behavior. In addition, they say, the President is unlikely to remove an errant staff member in the midst of a controversy. Both factors are likely to protect Sununu in the short run, barring serious new disclosures.

“If, by some stretch of the imagination, he was supposed to put his resignation in tomorrow or Saturday, it’s been put off for six months. Nothing happens while he’s under fire,” said one friend of the President. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Still, this source said, Sununu “has lost considerable ground since this whole thing began.”

Meanwhile, an examination by The Times of Sununu’s recent travels shows that at least two of the businessmen who provided corporate jets for his use over the past month have substantial business dealings with the federal government.

Maurice Subilia Jr., who provided Sununu’s transportation to a Republican fund-raiser in Maine on June 7, said that about 60% of his company’s business depends on Defense Department contracts. Subilia is president of Fiber Materials Inc. of Biddeford, Me., which manufactures high-temperature materials and had gross sales of about $40 million last year.

Fiber Materials was not reimbursed for the flight, Subilia said. Instead, the company will be credited with having made an in-kind contribution of $2,825 to the Maine Republican Party.

Subilia said the company’s plane made two round-trip flights from Portland to Washington to transport Sununu to the fund-raiser. He said Sununu was accompanied on the flight by one aide and by the wife of a Fiber Materials executive who is an acquaintance of the White House chief of staff.

Howard Bender, one of the owners of an aircraft that flew Sununu to Chicago and back for a Republican Governors Assn. fund-raiser on June 11, ranks among the leading builders of government facilities in Washington. The buildings erected by his firm, Blake Construction Co., include the J. Edgar Hoover Building housing the FBI, the U.S. Court of Claims and the executive office buildings across the street from the White House.

According to the General Services Administration, Blake’s most recent federal construction contract was a $39-million building for the Smithsonian Institution. In addition, the federal government leases a number of buildings in Washington owned by the Bender family or its company.

Although Bender was identified by the White House as the provider of Sununu’s flight to Chicago, a Republican Party official said the aircraft actually was leased from Bender by Stuart Bernstein, another Washington real estate developer.

The official said Bernstein submitted the name of Bender and the other owners of his plane to the White House counsel’s office before the trip was approved. White House officials have said that they review the credentials of all businessmen providing planes in order to prevent any conflict of interest, but they have not disclosed the criteria used in the reviews.

According to the official, who declined to be identified, Bernstein received a reimbursement of $1,888 from the Republican Governors Assn. for the flight. But the check did not cover the full cost, and Bernstein paid the remaining $2,098, which he considered an in-kind contribution to the association.

Accompanying Sununu on the Chicago flight, according to this source, were his wife, Bernstein, a White House aide and John Kinard, who was identified as another Washington businessman.

One White House senior staff member said the question of Sununu’s travel practices “goes right to one of the things Bush feels strongest about: loyalty, integrity, personal seemliness.”

“Every Administration has a certain number of lives in this score before the press starts saying it’s scandal-tainted. If you have nine lives, Sununu has used up one or two,” he said.

The matter has caused Bush “a great deal of” discomfort, said a friend of the President, adding that Sununu has “got to stay close to home, for appearances’ sake.”

“He’s been talked to, no question about that,” the friend said, predicting a considerably reduced travel schedule. “Every word I get is, he can’t go anywhere.”