 | | axis, so each appointee arrives with his own kit bag of abilities, attitudes, loyalties, and commitments. (Mackenzie 1981, 249-50)
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This, however, was Mackenzie writing in 1981, at the dawn of what was to be the unprecedented tour de force of ideological purity and unity known as the ''Reagan Revolution." Now, more than a decade later, one can observe the changed nature of political appointments, which actually began with the election of the outsider Jimmy Carter. While in the past the national parties had been the main source of pressure for presidential appointments, the power of the parties declined as that of interest groups grew. This means that contemporary appointment pressure
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| | is more likely to spring from the coalition of groups that have now replaced party organizations as the chief political allies on whom presidential candidates must rely during their long pilgrimage to the White House. Jimmy Carter ran without the blessing of major segments of his own political party, and he was most beholden to outside groups, like the National Education Association (NEA), that provided the organizational muscle for his presidential campaign, particularly during the primary season. Not surprisingly, a number of former leaders of such groups subsequently showed up in the Carter administration. (Rourke 1991b, 127)
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Similar pressures materialized in Reagan's appointments. "Many of Ronald Reagan's early appointments reflected the fact that his election in 1980 was as much the triumph of a rising conservative political philosophy as it was the victory of a political party." As discussed above, Reagan's personnel director, Pendelton James, came under fierce attack from conservatives even during the inauguration week for bringing in too many Nixon and Eisenhower "retreads" or others who had not supported Reagan early enough or strongly enough. He was thus forced to send more appointments their way to appease the conservatives (ibid., 127). The same pressures later beset President Bush.
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These New Right PASs served with varying degrees of success. Some became good soldiers of administration policy. "Others, however, proved to be stormy petrelsmore attached to their own creed than to the goals of the president, or perhaps, as in the case of the 'Right to Life' movement, bent on actually achieving goals to which the Reagan White Houseat least in its early yearswas prepared only to give lip service" (ibid., 127).
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Partisan considerations aside, there are some positions the president is not free to fill solely on political grounds. Scientific, medical, and tech-
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