Subject: Who Should've Been This President's Men?  
Date: Published: 4/6/88 553 lines
Source:  WALL STREET JOURNAL. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Who Should've Been This President's Men?  
    ---
   The Best and The Worst
   Of Reagan's Appointees

   With the thought that "personnel is policy," we asked a
range of notables to name those Reagan appointees who had
best and worst served the nation:  
 Paul Burka, executive editor, Texas Monthly
 BEST -- James A. Baker III (chief of staff):  Shut out Far
Right and its social agenda, did most to keep administration
in conservative mainstream.
   William Bennett (secretary of education):  On most
important issue of our time was consistently outspoken and
consistently right.
   Sandra Day O'Connor (Supreme Court):  Clever appointment -- 
a woman, so impossible to attack from left, but also
anti-abortion so satisfactory to right.  Eased fears of
conservative judicial revolution while changing direction of
court.
 WORST -- Edwin Meese (attorney general):  Openly refused to
acknowledge authority of Constitution, shut eyes to criminal
misconduct, messed up Iran/Contra investigation.
   William Casey (CIA director):  Undercut fabric of democracy
by running a government within a government.
   James Watt (interior secretary):  So abrasive he was
totally ineffective speaking for viewpoint that deserved
hearing -- that federal lands should be opened to some
activities.  Never accepted idea federal lands are public
trust.
 Col.  Harry Summers, contributing editor, U. S. News and
World Report
BEST -- Caspar Weinberger:  Best defense secretary since
George Marshall; "Weinberger Doctrine" enduring legacy.
   Gen.  John W. Vessey, Jr.  (chairman, joint chiefs):  True
soldier; gave intellectual honesty, moral courage good name.
   John Lehman and James Webb (Navy secretaries):  In grand
tradition; Alfred Thayer Mahan would have been proud.
 WORST -- David Stockman (budget director):  Reagan's
Benedict Arnold.
   Frank Carlucci (defense secretary):  In sorry tradition of
Truman's hack, Louis Johnson, who sacrificed American lives
on altar of political expediency.
   Rear Adm. John Poindexter and Lt.  Col.  Oliver North
(national security adviser and aide):  Dishonored oaths to
serve Constitution, disgraced uniforms.
 Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant Treasury secretary
 BEST -- Preston Martin (vice chairman, Federal Reserve):  
Prevented Volcker from causing a second "Reagan recession."
Donald Regan (Treasury secretary):  Took heat to defend tax
rate reductions.
   Weinberger:  Built up defense.
 WORST -- Michael K. Deaver (deputy chief of staff):  
Undermined Reagan's conservative advisers.
   Stockman:  Blamed own failure on Reagan.
   Paul Volcker (Fed chairman):  Preempted Reaganomics.
 Edward I. Koch, mayor of New York
 BEST -- C. Everett Koop (surgeon general):  Unflinchingly
answered AIDS call for leadership, led fight against smoking.
   Volcker:  Steady hand, great judgment and long commitment
to public service guided nation to economic recovery.
   James Baker:  First term White House operation
unparalleled; future president would be well advised to study
its MO. Excelled at Treasury, too.
   WORST -- Regan:  In contrast to Baker, singlehandedly
created divisive atmosphere in White House, damaged relations
with Hill, undermined administration ability to promote
agenda (maybe a plus).
   Daniel Manion (U. S. Circuit Court):  Everything this man
says is, and will be, held against all of us in court of law.
   Watt:  Anything this man said was, and should be, held
against him in court of public opinion.
 Prof.  Richard P. Nathan, Princeton Univ.
 BEST -- George Shultz (secretary of state):  In every way,
exceptional public servant.
   Stockman:  Brilliant in critical early days of momentum and
 '81 budget act.
   Baker/Meese/Deaver:  Lest we forget, first-term troika
smooth, balanced.
 WORST -- Regan:  A disaster -- completely unsuited to job
when things soured in second term.
   Alexander Haig (secretary of state):  Made things more
difficult in otherwise smoothly run first term.
Poindexter:  Ouch!
 Charles Murray, author, "Losing Ground"
 BEST -- Bennett:  Thought-out framework, ability to
articulate it and courage to take on rest of the world.
(Where do I vote for this guy for president?  )
   William Bradford Reynolds (assistant attorney general for
civil rights):  Maybe not effective, for his is ideal whose
time came and went 20 years ago, but a moral hero to some of
us.
 WORST -- All secretaries of health and human services:  
Reagan never took his chance to put a Bill Bennett in the
belly of the beast -- they were all "Gee, if only we had more
money...  ."  Republicans.
 Victor Navasky, editor, The Nation
 BEST -- Koop
WORST -- Meese:  Ask one of those special prosecutors why.
   Clarence M. Pendelton, Jr.  (chairman, Civil Rights
Commission):  Undermined program he was supposed to uphold.
   Reynolds:  Ditto.
 Reed Irvine, Accuracy in Media
 BEST -- Casey:  Did much to restore CIA effectiveness,
morale after disastrous Turner years.
   Bennett:  First occupant of office with courage and wit to
talk sense to educational establishment.
   Patrick J. Buchanan (communications director):  Spoke out
for president, marshaled support when others ran for tall
grass.  Fought mice on White House staff nibbling Reagan
agenda to death.
 WORST -- Thomas Griscom (communications director):  
Couldn't even get president on network TV to give one of most
important speeches of second term.
 Deaver:  Apparently proud of doing most to keep those who
shared Reagan's political philosophy from exercising
influence in Reagan's administration.
   Sharon Percy Rockefeller (Corporation for Public
Broadcasting board):  Reappointment made it impossible to
clean up liberal mess.
 Hodding Carter III, Viewpoint columnist
 BEST -- Baker:  Attempted in each post to make government
function using, not assaulting, the democratic process.
   Carlucci:  National service came and comes before ideology.
   Volcker:  Carter named him first, but Reagan kept him; to
degree economy is sound, he is primarily responsible.
 WORST -- Meese:  Advice consistently wrong and ethics
consistently dubious.
   Pendleton:  In administration that made speciality of
polarizing Americans on race, he was polarizer without equal.
   Weinberger:  Unrestricted love affair with uncoordinated
spending helped wreck budget intelligent military policy.
 Paul W. McCracken, Journal's Board of Contributors
 BEST -- Alan Greenspan (chairman, Federal Reserve):  
Judicious temperament, practical experience and sophisticated
understanding of economic policy.
   Robert Bork (Supreme Court):  Only a nomination, for lynch
mob of left denied country man who would have been great
justice (Senate, especially Judiciary Committee, never looked
more craven).
   Shultz:  Extraordinary intelligence, absolutely rock solid.
Lacked an extensive background in foreign policy, but a quick
and thorough learner.
 Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor, Pine Bluff (Ark.)  
Commercial
 BEST -- Shultz:  Competent, calm, persistent and
principled.
Koop:  Puts medicine above politics.
   Jeane Kirkpatrick (ambassador to U. N.)  -- Intelligent,
tough and rational.
 WORST -- Watt and Meese:  These should be self-explanatory
by now.
 Ernest W. Lefever, president, Ethics and Public Policy
Center
 BEST -- Kirkpatrick:  Courage and clarity in articulating
how America must respond to totalitarian threat to West and
totalitarian temptation to third world.
   Bennett:  Committed to humane values and excellence in
education and insistent personal character and civic virtue
be taught along with knowledge and skills.
   Weinberger:  Understands Soviet threat, attentive to advice
from Joint Chiefs and largely successful in restoring U. S. 
military strength.
John McLaughry, formerly White House Office of Policy
Development
 BEST -- Charles D. Hobbs (assistant to president for
welfare reform):  Dedicated, patient, competent expert who is
quietly bringing welfare reform to America.
   Armando Valladares (U. S. delegate to the U. N. Human Rights
Commission):  Relatively unimportant post, but man who can
confront Castro's apologists with marks on his own body.
   Mark Fowler (chairman, Federal Communications Commission):  
Restored freedom to airwaves; belonged in Cabinet on sheer
merit.
 WORST -- Margaret Heckler (secretary of Health and Human
Services):  Probably single worst Cabinet appointment since
Harding administration.
   Deaver:  Gives snakes a bad name.
   Meese:  Poor, well-meaning, decent Ed, who could never keep
track of his friends, his finances, his nominees or even his
briefcases.
Arthur B. Laffer, economist
 BEST -- Volcker and Shultz:  Abundance of common trait -- 
absolute integrity.  That plus Volcker's undaunted quest for
price rule of money and Shultz's early-on absolute commitment
to tax cuts fundamentally changed America.  (If jobs had been
reversed, it wouldn't have been pretty.)  
 Ken Adelman, former head, Arms Control and Disarmament
Agency
 BEST -- Kirkpatrick:  Defended American values on the front
lines.
   Donald Rumsfeld (special envoy on Law of the Seas):  
Succeeded marvelously at "scuttle diplomacy" to deep-six this
disastrous treaty to socialize nature.
   Richard Armitage (assistant secretary of defense):  Stays
put, turning down higher rungs to do job he's good at.
Murray Weidenbaum, former chairman, Council of Economic
Advisors
 BEST -- Shultz:  Crucial post, class act.
   Antonin Scalia (Supreme Court):  Perhaps longest reach of
any Reagan move.
 Richard Stroup, formerly Interior official; Political
Economy Research Center
  BEST -- James Miller (budget director):  Professional,
knowledgeable, true to Reagan rhetoric within limits of role.
 WORST -- Anne Gorsuch Burford (EPA administrator):  
Appointment unfair for she lacked "street smarts" to handle
vicious attacks from outside and bureaucratic antipathy
inside; lacked vision to bring constructive Reagan-like
approach to environmental issues.
 Tom Bethell, media fellow, Hoover Institution
BEST -- Meese:  Refused to back down or abandon sound
principles in face of media campaign of slander that dwarfed
 excesses of McCarthy era.
   Scalia:  Understands that U. S. Constitution, as liberals
like to say of First Amendment, "means what it says."
   Bennett:  Like Kirkpatrick, has shown that (ex) Democrats
often make the best Republicans.  They understand there are
differences of principle between two parties, not mere
misunderstandings.
 WORST -- Deaver:  Although he never understood issues,
worked tirelessly to bring Reagan's position on them in line
with Washington consensus.
   William K. Verity (secretary of commerce):  Like Malcolm
Baldrige before him, seems to believe primary purpose of U. S. 
government is to serve interests of big U. S. businesses.
   Robert McFarlane (national security adviser):  In way over
his head; unwisely steered Reagan down arms control path,
quietly campaigned against SDI and brought disastrous
hostage-swap scheme to Reagan's notice.
 Warren Brookes, Washington editorialist, Detroit News
 BEST -- Weinberger:  Truly noble man of uncommon courage,
decency and commitment.  Knighted by grateful ally abroad even
as magnificent defense revival was scorned and sabotaged at
home.
   Bennett:  Guts to take on America's intellectually
administratively corrupt education establishment.  (Helped
start "Bonfire" for Tom Wolfe's "Vanities.")
   John Shad (chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission):  
Tried to get Wall Street to clean up act before destroying
itself, while keeping Congress from doing more damage.
 WORST -- Volcker:  Most overrated central banker in U. S. 
history.  Reappointment in 1983 led to astonishing kill-off of
strong recovery; 80% of deficits result from Fed's volatile
policies.
   Stockman:  A Judas more beguiled by fools-silver of
Washington press than by golden opportunity to serve cause.
   Terrel Bell (secretary of education):  So much a part of
problem that he couldn't be part of solution.
 Henry Cisneros, mayor of San Antonio
 BEST -- Shultz:  Stable, consistent, goal-oriented and has
perspective.
   Baker:  Pragmatic manager; ability to respond to world
events; mature good judgment.
   Volcker:  Confidence-inspiring; steady; public-minded.
 WORST -- Elliott Abrams (assistant secretary of state for
Latin America).  Meese.  Regan.
 Mark Helprin, author, commentator
 BEST -- Weinberger:  Intelligence, courage, and clear
purpose; did what he did entirely for sake of his country.
   Shultz:  One of "grandfathers" who provide government not
only individual talents and virtues but sense of continuity
and link to history.  (Average age of my cabinet would be
about 70.  See China.)  
   Webb:  Despite hasty and ill-considered resignation,
imaginative man of letters with military background is right
kind of youthful appointee.  (Abrams, too.)  
 WORST -- Carlucci:  Consummate bureaucrat and
apple-polisher, whose hangman's glee at doing what Weinberger
wouldn't is painful to observe.  His delight at high office
seems to indicate he is out of his depth.
   William Wilson:  Reagan confidant, representative to Holy
See and occasional Libyan tourist was embarrassing fusion of
arrogance, mystery, incompetence.
   Stockman:  Reminds me of a squid -- when threatened, turns
tail and spews out enormous volumes of ink.
 Owen Harries, National Interest editor
 BEST -- Kirkpatrick, Abrams and Richard Perle (assistant
secretary of defense):  Three who share refreshing belief
America must be more than good loser.  Fought against
pernicious and debilitating orthodoxies with high
intelligence, skill and resolution.
 WORST -- Deaver, Regan, John Whitehead (deputy secretary
of state):  Each in own way demonstrated danger of assertive
incompetence in high places.
 Robert D. Reischauer, senior fellow, Brookings Institution
 BEST -- Stockman:  Proved president could change budget
priorities significantly and that powerful interest groups,
government bureaucrats and congressional committees did not
have stranglehold on tax and spending policies.
 WORST -- Stockman:  However, new budget course he set
nation on entailed huge and dangerous deficits which will be
administration's enduring legacy.
Paul M. Weyrich, Coalitions for America
 BEST -- Bennett:  One cabinet officer who's managed to set
a national agenda and actually changed things.
   Gary Bauer (domestic policy adviser):  One of few in Reagan
White House who understands politics of value-related issues
and thus has held coalition together in its latter days.
   James Burnley (secretary of transportation):  Best example
of rapid move up ladder in governing while maintaining
philosophical principles.
 WORST -- Deaver:  Made national decisions in own rather
than country's interest; most everything he did was for image
rather than substance.
   Shultz:  Even more than Kissinger, has become total captive
of State Department bureaucracy dedicated to seeing U. S. lose
internationally.
   Verity:  Protectionist at heart, also soft on Soviet trade.
Worse combination for national interest hard to imagine.
Irving Kristol, Board of Contributors
 BEST -- Bennett:  Only appointee who really knew how to
talk about "moral-social" issues in such a way as to define
the public agenda.
   Kirkpatrick:  Fully appreciated importance of tapping
wellsprings of American nationalism in defining American
foreign policy (something neither secretary of state nor
defense understood at all).
   Abrams:  Seemingly only person at State who understood
substance of foreign policy takes precedence over rituals of
diplomacy, rather than vise versa.
 K. E. Grubbs Jr., editorial director, Orange County
(Calif.)  Register
 BEST -- Fowler:  Sought to apply First Amendment to
electronic journalism.
   Miller:  Principled in thankless job.
   Bennett:  Took illegitimate function of government, made it
interesting.
 WORST -- Pendleton James (personnel director):  Assumed
that a Reagan administration should resemble a Nixon or Ford
administration.
   Nancy Reagan:  Appointed taipan of the administration.
   Deaver:  Chief lickspittle.
 Jude Wanniski, Polyconomics
 BEST -- Baker:  Brilliant choice; an essential ingredient
to success of first Reagan term.  (Reagan wisely chose can-do
chief of staff over Meese, an ideologue.)  
   Weinberger:  Vastly underrated; put together magnificent
Pentagon team that breathed new life into military, put SDI
into play, and got INF Treaty at point of Pershing missiles.
   Regan:  Instrumental in implementing '81 tax cuts, but also
fostered revolutionary tax-reform ideas in way that disarmed
liberals.
WORST -- Stockman:  Youth and intellectual arrogance led to
betrayal of mandate for economic growth; pushed austerity,
TEFRA and tight money, the combination producing horrendous
deficits.
   Shultz:  Lip service to Reaganite global objectives, but
effectively blocked reforms in foreign economic policy,
undermined SDI when he could, and left president twisting in
wind in Iran/Contra.
   Volcker:  Should have learned dangers of commodity
deflation in '81-82, but repeated mistakes in '84-85,
shutting off growth with supertight money and producing his
second deflation.
 Rep. Stephen Solarz (D, N. Y.)  
 BEST -- Steven Bosworth (ambassador to the Philippines):  
When fate of that nation hung in balance two years ago,
provided perfect combination of finesse and forcefulness.
   Mike Mansfield (ambassador to Japan):  Octogenarian whose
vigor and zest for life have made him perhaps our most
effective envoy ever to nation that venerates age and
tradition.
   Carlucci:  Returns a prudent sense of proportion and
reality to Pentagon after seven years of profligacy.
 WORST -- Casey:  According to testimony before Irangate
committee, led Reagan down primrose path to biggest foreign
policy fiasco of his presidency.
   Poindexter:  Either lied to Congress or displayed
deplorable judgment in keeping from president information he
needed.
   Watt:  Made stripminers look like charter members of Sierra
Club.
 Edwin J. Feulner, Jr., president, Heritage Foundation
 BEST -- Meese:  Absolute commitment to conservative
principles and loyalty to Reagan, despite incessant media
attempts to discredit him.
   Kirkpatrick:  Most articulate supporter of president's
foreign policy; put in place framework to evaluate
support/opposition toward U. S. policies at U. N. 
   Daniel Oliver (chairman, Federal Trade Commision):  quietly
raised issues and implemented policies to strengthen free
enterprise by fostering competition and reducing role of
feds.
 WORST -- Deaver:  Book only confirms what conservative
Reagan backers suspected all along.
   Bell:  Opposed Reagan's policies when nominated; while in
office did nothing to change expectations of him.
   Margaret Heckler and Otis Bowen (HHS secretaries):  Both
lost opportunity to reform largest department in federal
government.
 Fred Krupp, Environmental Defense Fund
 BEST -- Lee Thomas (administrator of EPA):  Surpassed
expectations by championing world-wide treaty on
ozone-destroying chemicals.
Ann C. McLaughlin (undersecretary of the interior):  
Brought common sense and accessibility post-Watt.
   Koop:  Showed uncommon boldness in speaking frankly about
hazards of tobacco use and problem of AIDS. 
 WORST -- Watt:  Rape-and-ruin approach to resource
conservation was ultimately self-destructive.
   Burford:  Ideologue committed to undoing decade of
environmental progress; elevated partisan considerations over
human health and public welfare concerns.
   Donald Hodel (secretary of the interior):  Watt with a more
pleasant demeanor; appointment revealed Reagan never
understood how unpopular his environmental policies are.
 David Hale, Kemper Financial Services
 BEST -- Baker and Richard Darman (deputy treasury
secretary):  Reversed damage done to international economic
policy by Regan and Beryl Sprinkel; highly effective
firefighters following a team of arsonists.
Shultz:  Administration's strengths are in State's domain
of foreign policy.
 WORST -- Regan:  Poorest finance minister to preside over
industrial country's economic policy in modern era.  History
will judge him very harshly, especially if U. S. goes
protectionist.
   Beryl Sprinkel (assistant treasury secretary for monetary
policy):  Magnified Regan's incompetence.  Ideological rigidity
about exchange rate policy in face of rapidly growing trade
deficit.
 Richard Holbrooke, investment banker, assistant secretary
of state under Carter
 BEST -- Darman:  Extraordinary ability; without him, little
could have been claimed in domestic/economic areas.
   Michael Armacost (undersecretary of state):  Epitomizes
best of career federal service; played key roles in
Philippines policy success, Afghanistan, etc.
Mansfield:  Best holdover; best "political" appointee.
 WORST -- Casey:  Automatic place.
   Poindexter/North/McFarlane:  Package entry; unable to sort
out roles in arms for hostages deal.
   Watt:  May be gone, but attempts to wreck national heritage
not forgotten.
 John Boland, financial writer
 BEST -- Casey:  Revived agency and lifted morale.
   Kirkpatrick:  Articulate voice for West.  Justices Scalia,
O'Connor:  Rationalizing court.
 WORST -- David Ruder (chairman, SEC):  Tally-ho for
regulation.
   Verity:  Red carpet for Soviet trade.
 Phyllis Schlafly, conservative activist
BEST -- Bennett:  Articulate and courageous advocate of
traditional American values and excellence in education.
   Weinberger:  Excellent advocate of superior military
strength, need for SDI. 
   George Bush:  Right choice for vice president at a critical
time.
 WORST -- Shultz:  Disloyal to Reagan promises and policies
and GOP platform.
   Carlucci:  Ditto.
 Michael Horowitz, ex-general counsel, Office of Management
and Budget
 BEST -- Baker/Meese/Deaver/Stockman/Darman/Fuller:  
"Inefficient" and often fractious first term staff followed
FDR organizational model to Reagan's great advantage.
   Bill(s) Bennett/Baxter (assistant attorney general for
antitrust):  Altered terms of debate.
   Peggy Noonan (speechwriter):  When she left, Great
Communicator sang no more.
 WORST -- Regan:  Singular goal to run railroad on time,
inevitably ran it into the ground; central figure in second
term collapse and '86 election debacle.
   HHS Secretaries:  Apparatchiks all.
   Robert Tuttle (personnel director):  Never had a clue;
champion creator of lost opportunities.
 John Train, author, investment counsel
 WORST -- Frank Sinatra:  Was bestowed prestige of White
House -- and a Medal of Freedom.
 Prof.  John Lukacs, author, "Outgrowing Democracy"
 BEST -- Bennett, Shultz and Bork:  Conservatives, true and
real.
 WORST -- North, Buchanan and Weinberger:  Rabid and
ignorant ideologues.
 Jerry Falwell, Thomas Road Baptist Church
 BEST -- Meese.  Hodel.  Weinberger.
 WORST -- Stockman.  Carlucci.  Bowen.
 Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Board of Contributors
 BEST -- Baker.  Koop.  Shultz.
 WORST -- Meese.  Abrams.  Watt.
 Reed Larson, National Right to Work
 BEST -- Raymond Donovan (secretary of labor).
   Donald Dotson (National Labor Relations Board).
   Bennett.
WORST -- William Brock (secretary of labor).
   Stephen Schlossberg (undersecretary of labor).
   Rosemary Collyer (general counsel, NLRB).
 R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., editor-in-chief, American Spectator
 BEST -- Casey:  Recognized historic forces bearing down on
U. S. ; intent on advancing its influence -- always with same
audacity Schlesinger thought he found admirable in JFK's
thousand days.
   Bennett:  Took a small job at Education and made it
powerful instrument for scrutinizing social and domestic
policy.
   Lehman:  Built Navy into powerful foundation for U. S. 
diplomacy of peace.
 WORST -- Deaver:  Dutiful about the humdrum while
attempting to thwart all higher values and many of wisest
policies his boss stood for.
   Bell:  Defended education as though it were vested interest
like sugar growers' lobby and not vivifier of American mind
and culture.
   Stockman:  A genius provincial:  cut budgets whether
cuttable or not, raise taxes whether growth-retarding or not;
then, having followed prescriptions of Capitol Hill, behold
in retirement highest levels of peacetime spending in
history.
 Horace Busby, adviser to Lyndon Johnson
 BEST -- Justice O'Connor:  Timely appointment -- 
acknowledged important societal change in and beyond legal
profession.
   Clayton Yeutter (trade representative):  Superb background
(in academia, government and business); brought new
professionalism to important post.
   Ralph Stanley (mass transit administrator):  Best of many
young GOP administrator/regulators; changed Fed-local
relationship without confrontation.
WORST -- Watt:  A misfit.
   Regan (chief of staff):  Wrong man, wrong place, wrong
time.
   Donovan:  Insensitivity to unions outside home state cost
GOP chance for political gains.
 Lawrence Uzzell, Scripps Howard editorialist
 BEST -- Samuel Pierce (Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development):  Cut budget in half -- far better than any other
cabinet member.
 WORST -- Bell:  Redefined "education reform" to equate it
with more spending and regulation.
 Dina Rasor, military-reform advocate
 BEST -- Stockman:  Questioned total lack of planning in
early years of Reagan defense buildup.
WORST -- Richard DeLauer (undersecretary of defense for
research and engineering):  Chaired review that approved
production of Maverick missile in face of overwhelming
negative evidence.
   James Ambrose (undersecretary of Army):  Went from Ford
Aerospace to Pentagon and rammed through many dubious weapons
systems, including DIVAD, a Ford Aerospace product.
   (See related stories:  "A Revolution but for the
Revolutionaries" and "Dutch Reagan Leads the League in Hits"
 -- WSJ April 6, 1988)

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