The President's Call: Executive Leadership From FDR to George Bush (69 page)

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Authors: Judith E. Michaels

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Page 220
Table 7.6. PAS-Reported Differences Between Bush's and Reagan's Appointees
George Bush's PASs
Ronald Reagan's PASs
Cabinet model of appointments at first, then White House model
Central clearanceWhite House control of appointments from the start
Less control in the 3rd and 4th levels of the bureaucracy
Careful placement deep in the bureaucracy down to the 4th level and Schedule Cs
Team players/Bush loyalists
Ideologues; as many as 80% came from Nixon's administrations
Trouble with "the vision thing"; No clear goals except to stay in office
Simplistic, clear message and missionReagan and PASs
"Government of colleagues" experienced in government
"Government of strangers." Newcomers, especially in Reagan's first term
Committed to government service
"What's in it for me?" Government service as a resume-enhancer
More professional/ administrative goalsmanaged agency well, did not push the administrative state
Agenda-driven; built on and extended Nixon's administrative state
Emphasis on tenure/lower turnover
No emphasis on tenure/high turnover
High ethical standards, few scandals
Many lapses, many scandals
Disdainful of Reagan's "party hacks"
They were considered "the party hacks"
More women and minorities
"Good old boys," some younger
Bush supported public servants; respected government, public service
Reagan attacked public servants; "Government is the problem"
Source:
Bush PAS interviews.
 
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themselves, or are incompetent, it not only makes the agency and administration look bad with the public, it also sours relations with the careerists. That was the theme of the Reagan years. Overall, however, the Bush years did not carry that same motif. There was far less criticism of the competence of his appointees, according to one careerist.
Jerry Shaw recalled Reagan's agenda-driven focus. His people were
extremely ideological. They wanted very quickly to stamp their presence on the federal workforce. They attempted to weed out Democrats, both political and career. . . . Political operative Lyn Nofziger's motto was their own early on: "Don't you ever forget, the best government is no government."
According to [one estimate], 80% of Reagan's appointees had been in the Nixon White House and had done nothing in the four years they were out but decide what they were going to do when they got back in and what they wanted to do was "nothing" in the regulatory agencies. Their goal was to take control of the agencies and make those they didn't like ineffective. Many good career people left in the early years because of the ideological shift-they moved to the private sector.
Long-term occupation of the White House may be the dream of the political parties but it carries negative consequences for filling government's political leadership. According to Shaw,
By Reagan 2 many of the ideologues had left because they had accomplished what they wanted to. George Bush probably brought in less-qualified people in lower-level political jobs than was true in Reagan. It was probably a logical extension of twelve years of one-party rule. Bush's payback was less, not that different a crowd from Reagan. But in Bush, people in their twenties and early thirties who had never held a job were placed in very responsible NSES positions, especially in Education, Commerce, and the Small Business Administration. Also, lots of young Hill staffers were placed in executive positions; some had falsified their SF 171 to make them appear more qualifiedone had been in prison, one had run his business into bankruptcy.
Shaw noted further that a party's third term has fewer qualified people from which to draw. "The high flyers have come and gone; the ones who try to stay are those who don't have a good background, or qualifications, or any place to go, or they would have gone already." As he and oth-
 
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ers observed, once agenda-driven appointees accomplish their goals they are ready to move on because "government gets old after a while."
Shaw spoke of what he considered Bush's obviously wise choices, "Sullivan at HHS, Newman at OPM, Shirley Peters at IRS, Gwendolyn King at SSA. But lower down at the deputy assistant secretary level, there was a lack of qualifications." He continued, "In Bush there were lots of young, arrogant appointees without executive or leadership skills who screamed and yelled at careerists. They didn't know any better, they were too young. But it was ulcer city among careerists. There were heart attacks, high blood pressure, alcoholism. It was a rough time."
Another careerist noted that
Reagan's PASs were more philosophical, ideological, agenda-driven, mission-driven than any previous president [in his experience]. It was much broader than just political objectives. Once in office they felt they had a mandate to implement their approach to government. It was very, very frightening. They were riding their individual, personal agendas more than Reagan's. Some had a way-out, political philosophy (libertarian) and they were trying to implement
Mandate for Leadership I,
which was never a Ronald Reagan paper. They were much more distrustful of government: Government was bad; bureaucrats were bad. George Bush's appointees did much less of this. His PASs were more into good government; they were institutional people into improving government.
Hill staffer Moss had this assessment:
Bush continued the same general trend regarding appointees. They were dismantlers, not improvers; it was less overtly political, but just as solid a trend. Many Reagan PASs were put in charge of programs or agencies they had strenuously criticizedAID, Legal Services Corp, Watts at Interior, the Park Serviceit was the "fox in the chicken house" effect. Congress refused to confirm some of them. The 1982 tax bill, the reconciliation bill, made it clear that the Reagan administration was placing people who had a vested interest in seeing that programs did not work in agencies and programs to which they were opposed. This was a completely new departure in government that many found irresponsible and shocking.
The appointees to the SEC, ICC, FCC, and other regulatory agencies were all deregulatory people. They initiated legislation to further deregulate the agencies they managed. This resulted in some major disastersthe savings and loans scandal, airlines, and freight rail fees, in particular.

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