European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 20, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Rise of Robert c. Mcfarlan president s National Security and to an increased position Ofin Fli. Was physically demonstrated i his desk was i Rhei ducked into the Oval Ollice and invited his Boss to journey Down the Short very quiet rather Humble looking passage connecting their offices to see his  Regan showed Oft a personal computer terminal and keyboard he had installed to get Basic information speedily to hand not just Agenda and Issue summaries but also Stock Market readings to keep him posted on his first love. Regan s style includes a Strong commitment to a neat process and he tried to interest the president in a personal computer according to a stall official with no noticeable Success. It s  the official said referring to the Day when the nation will have a president who uses one. Now we re looking into the kind where you just touch the screen to retrieve things. Maybe that would interest  meantime Regan has his hands on the keyboard As Well As on the president s Day and White House workers say he keeps far tighter control of Access to the Oval office than existed when Reagan s California cohorts worked in the Wing and Felt free to look in. The president is said to follow the Regan schedule genially and his occasional command decision to Rise up from a meeting open the door to the Rose Garden and leed walnuts to the squirrels is taken More As a measure of the Quality of the meeting than of a general tendency toward executive truancy. Even before the president s illness last summer. Regan kept things lean beginning each Oval office Day with a meeting involving himself vice president Bush and the president. During that now seemingly Distant convalescent period this meeting began at 9 30 . Regan preceded it with an 8 o clock meeting apart from the president devoted to the business of a dozen or so senior staff members. A daily meeting with the president at 10 30 lately focuses on National Security affairs and features Mcfarlane s presentation. Otherwise Regan maps the president s Day like a tidy investment portfolio and James f. Kuhn. The president s special assistant politely enforces it As a kind of shadowy but insistent master of ceremony interrupting visitors who slay too Long shepherding  flow to like a Brook than a , rom the. Oval off thigh a  Oles celebrated office. ,1985 Reagan Back on schedule. Kuhn sits outside the Oval office near Kathleen Osborne the president s personal Secretary who is respected in the West Wing for the Power games she does not play. She s firm but fair to everyone in protecting the  one official said. Within the altered staff continuity can be a form of Power. Thus Larry Scakes. The White House spokesman is someone to contend with if Only As a master of survival one who has kept his intrigues limited and managed to serve almost As Long As the president. Craig l. Fuller a West Wing Veteran from his Days As presidential assistant for Cabinet affairs moved on to be the vice president s chief of staff across the Alley in the old executive office building. But he remains turf minded enough to come Over and spend part of most workdays within Bush s West Wing Oft co. Between those of Regan and Mcfarlane. To try to track things. One of the better places to traffic in White House news and Yosip remains a Largo round table in the basement Mojo of. That s where to go to find out what s going on in  one diner said. Smaller tables Are usually reserved Tor quiet lunches by staff executives. But the common round one is for the shifting mix of West Wing workers who suddenly drop in and join in random talk that can be As toothsome As the mexican menus the workers prefer. Some of the talk there after the president s August return to the Oval office was much like that in hamlets across the country expressions of simple wonder at Reagan s resolve to get Back to work so quickly. That return to routine put workers Back to less critical speculations such As the curiosity that a number of offices on the second floor were left vacant after various staff changes is some sort of Odd or delayed Power play about to evolve the second floor notables include another master of survival and quiet student of West Wing politics Fred f. Fielding the counsel John a. Svahn. The assistant for policy development who is rated a quiet worker understandably perhaps since he is directly above the president s office and Max l. Friedersdorf who coordinates legislative strategy. The assistant to the president for legislative affairs . Oglesby also has his office there but must Scurry often to Capitol Hill. Christopher Hicks a basement worker who tends to the West Wing metabolism As Deputy assistant for administration explained that the vacant upper rooms mainly Are due not to ego machinations but to the Leaky roof. This is a chronic problem in the West Wing which is a Jerry built Structure perpetually temporary that was added when Theodore Roosevelt sought quiet working room away from his eight children Over in the East Wing. To fix the roof would mean disrupting the workday of the most important executive Lair in the nation. Hicks notes. Four More years he said describing the strategy of procrastination to Deal with it. The stars and stripes Page 15