 | | good people who were interested in improving innovative programs, as opposed to the Reagan people who were opposed to the mission of their agency or who wanted to deregulate the IRCs. Reagan chose "Reagan Democrats," neoconservatives, for non-Republican IRC slots. This basis for selection carried over to lesser-known but important agencies, such as NLRB, which makes key labor decisions. . . . The Reagan appointees shifted the whole basis of labor law through the appeal process.
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Moss felt that the quality of Bush appointees was not up to that of the Carter administration and had deteriorated in the past twelve years of Republican leadership. "Aside from ambassadors, Bush's choices
may
be marginally better than Reagan's. There have been no Jim Wattses in Bush's term (those so far out of the mainstream of American thought as to be egregious). George Bush is less ideological, less overtly interested in making government appear to be working less efficiently."
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He did not see any differences between Reagan and Bush regarding political-career relations, however. "The professionals are generally superior to their political overseers," he said.
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Elliot Richardson commented on the differences between Reagan and Bush:
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| | Generally, the Reaganites had a higher ratio of true believers. The right wingers never really believed Bush was one of them, despite his best efforts. . . . He nominated a lot of moderate Republicans, these were the early Bush people, pre-1990, so the loyalty litmus test brought in a different breed than the Reaganites.
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| | George Bush had fewer ideologues. He didn't treat seriously enough the third- and fourth-level jobs [the deputy assistant secretaries]. Reagan looked at those jobs and chose the fourth-level person in the campaign (the advance person) for the job. It was often a mismatch of skillstoo many people in those jobs who were there due to patronage.
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Moss noted that Bush talked more than Reagan did about appointing women and minorities, and he did, in fact, appoint women chiefs to many postsOPM, Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Federal Labor Relations Agency, National Institutes of Health, Federal Trade Commission, Labor, Commerce, Peace Corps, PPO, Small Business Administration, and Surgeon General. Also, "minorities have done better than in previous administrations. Hispanics and Indians less so than Blacks. They feel slighted somewhatonly now are Hispanics getting organized."
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