European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 3, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes columns George will Reagan paying for Lazy management style with less til an lightning like promptness the president will on wednesday respond to he Tower com Luion. To which he should reel deep gratitude to focused discussion on How his management style produced what former sen. John Tower Calls in inn. Contra both characterizations arc Loo kind. There Are two senses in which the Pri Mary problem was no he president s management first no managerial wizardry could have altered the fact that the policy Selling arms to Iran then bartering diem for hostage was self indulgent oily that could neither be defended nor kept secret. Second references to Reagan a management style obscure the tact that the style reflects a character Trail. That trait is grave flaw. In sterner age which spoke of sin the flaw was consid ered one of the seven deadly tins la Kisstoth nowadays known As laziness. Hit management style required from him an energetic insistence on Quality in the people around him and he tacked that insistence. But that Lack ii a form of laziness remember that then chief of staff James Baker and Hen trea sury Secretary Donald Regan together cooked up their Swap of jobs and Reagan languidly accepted it. Self indulgence is if not a form of Lazi Ness certainly Cousin of it. Reagan has been self indulgent when confronted by aides failures. The departure of Donald Regan came in his own Sweet time More than three months late that was a debilitating result of the self indulgence of a presi Dent who would rather not put himself through the unpleasantness of demonstrating that there Are penalties for failure. Tower s characterization of the Iran Centra a flair As an aberration is Only partly Correct. True the affair was a aberration in the sense that it docs not typify the general Tenor and record of the administration in All spheres of policy. However in another sense it was not an aberration it is pan of a pattern visible even before it became vivid during the Nick Dan loft spy Swap debacle and the Iceland Summit. The careless and intellectually dishonest handling of the Daniloff affair James Reston name 1stm6 rest of of denying there was a a denying that the Swap that the dem produced was Swap reflected be indulgence Rea Gan was indulging hug self in the pleasure he takes from win Bethe release of hos tages. As in the Iris Nair he allowed his personal proc cuff on with hostages o control Public i the Hasty Sake Only preparation for the Summit in Leonid last october was Evi Dence of a Melness thai was evident two october caller. Remember Reagan s alarmingly co used performance in the first debate we Walter Mondale it was then said inculcation that Reagan had been too in dubious that he had been Over re Pard by a staff that bludgeoned him with Loo much information. But Hinl happen when a politician puts himself like so much inert Putty in the hands of handlers and does so because he will not take the trouble to decide precisely what he wants u soy and do. Reagan s response to the weakness of the Mondale Challenge was a vacuous Campaign. It in turn produced a second term that was sputtering along on Only a few cylinders even before the Iran Cen tra debacle caused the transmission Lodi integrate. It is Clear there were Many important things that Reagan was not told and that tent not to be told. Further were things he was told but absorb or did not grasp their Jeffi conce. Those failures reflect the level of Energy Reagan was investing. By also reflect poorly on Bis two most experienced colleagues Caspar Wein Berger and George shelf. Those two Are the aides most Central to National Security policy making and most experienced in governance. They arc especially culpable for distancing themselves self indulge my and even petulantly from a policy they disapproved they should have rated the Roo until Reagan understood what he now understand the consequences of the inevitable exposure of his policy. By his actions and inaction since november Reagan has put upon himself a heavy Burden of proof. He roust prove he is still interested in being president As he contracted with in american people to be until 1989. Otherwise there soon will be corrosive comparisons to the last months of Wood Row Wilson s presidency again what is being tested in these next difficult Days is his character not his capacities. His capacities Are sufficient when he wills the use of them. Sen. Ted Kennedy a mass. Was among congressional Leaden who met with Reagan last week to discuss among other things Job training. Kennedy say that on that subject in is a bum rap 10 say Reagan is inattentive. Kennedy says Reagan was More familiar with the de tails than half the members of the Rele vant Senate committee. The question is where is he Ronald Reagan who in and after the North car Olina primary of 1976, found inner fountains of fire and fought Back from the Edge of political extinction where it in Reagan who after defeat in the 1930 Iowa caucuses reached deep into himself for reservoirs of combat Wejs whereas the Reagan of the air traffic controllers strike the protracted first term fights for his budget and tax priorities the liberation of Grenada the punishment of Libya the question president Reagan mus answer this week is this where is the rest of him Wiki Wijacki Pom Tvr ilm or a Baker Sele Tion changes atmosphere in capital in picking Howard Baker of ten chief of staff. President Reagan May his successor. For by this single stroke he has sphere in Washington raised the san cooperation in both dome stand transformed the presidential this May be saying Loo much he says he is not a candidate i had the Power to appoint the be the next president of the probably choose the Little i much will depend of self reacts to the fair and h report of the Tower com judgments of the iranian he acted wisely and with Baker As soon Aswill know More when week whether he inn him to follow Regan of however the problems of the next two years be a most dil mood. To be his i have chosen inca to res pct for Bip Arti Ina foreign policy Ilion of 1988. Howard Baker since members of Congress Liticia Best qualified to listed states they would Tennessee. A on How Reagan him Licious but severely critical Iii s findings on his mis is Deal. Fickle in replacing Don Regan report was published and we n addresses the nation this to let Baker be Baker or expects Licy of letting Reagan be Reagan Lent really wants to gel on to the ure with nonpartisan support in his can help him in what obviously will i task. Al least Baker will change the there has always been something fantastic and exaggerated about the Reagan Regan White House. The president could t even have a Normal great fall like any other humpty dumpy it had to be a helluva crash. For him everything seemed True but the facts and Regan egged him on. There was something bizarre and even weird about All this both unimaginable and Nev liable. Reagan tried to balance the budget by cutting taxes and bring peace on Earth by invading the stars Washington always knew he could t keep on floating along like this without visible Means of support Bui it was t prepared for this free fall to disaster. Given a Chance. Baker is Likely to change the ques Tion and open the doors. For he is above All a practical Man More concerned with the Public Trust than with Public opinion with building coalitions across party lines than with ideology or even partisan advantage. No doubt this will trouble the right Wing zealots in his party who concentrate on culling taxes and bashing communists. Ideology aside however. Baker will want to know if the policies work and on present evidence of the budget deficit the Trade deficit and the state of . Policy with the russians and the allies they arc not working now. It does t follow of course however Well he does hat this will Pilch Baker into the presidential rare. In fact i will Lake him right out of in for the foreseeable future for he will have to scrap whatever political organization he now has and concentrate on his White House Job. But if he docs that Job Between now and the Republican nominating convention much May change. Per haps the most important function of a Public servant in a free and democratic society is to preserve its one Ness while he guides the Battles that Divide it Baker is obviously and intuitively qualified to do this without rancor gathering Trust because he gives it and working through the tangles of government be cause he believes in it. He has been in eclipse since he resigned As re publican Leader of the Senate but he now will be As much in the limelight As he chooses to be. He has Good personal relations with Secretary of state Shultz. Whose Job he once coveted and with the support of the president and the congressional leaders. He May even be Able to put Huni ply dumpy Back together again. He has been summoned in this crisis because he can be a restorer of order and serenity after years of ideological turmoil and faction if tit succeeds in this assignment or even if he makes a difference that is visible to he people it is at least conceivable that he could be drafted for higher service As Dwight Eisen Hower was in 1952. After All. The is not All that formidable in either party. Reagan will not be in the Nice and maybe by then even Iran will be no More than a shameful memory
