Stockman the Soldier

David A. Stockman always has seemed like the very bright kid on the block, the prodigy who could amaze his elders by reciting the Gettysburg Address all the way through or reel off the capitals of the states. And, like the precocious kid with the big glasses, he occasionally threw an errant football through the neighbor’s front window--or his own.

One of the problems, politically, for very bright people is that they often say what they are thinking. This habit is one that has kept Stockman in hot water throughout much of his term as President Reagan’s director of the Office of Management and Budget. Unhappily for the President, what Stockman said sometimes was at odds with the rosy themes emanating from the White House.

But, fortunately for the country, Stockman has been a public servant in the best sense of the word. He is a thoroughly knowledgeable, professional scholar and practitioner of government. When many others in the Administration had doubts about supply-side economics, only Stockman dared to say the obvious--that the program was traditional Republican trickle-down policy dressed up as a Trojan horse. He has been virtually alone in the Administration in speaking openly and consistently about the dangers of the mounting budget deficit and the need for possible tax increases.

Stockman’s positions frequently put him at odds with the Treasury Department. The fact that former Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan now is White House chief of staff most certainly is one element of Stockman’s decision to leave the Administration now. That is unfortunate in the sense that there will be one less voice of alarm at the times when the alarm needs to be sounded.

Stockman has been bold, witty, brash, glib, sometimes brilliant and most of the time very loyal to his President. The Times has disagreed with his specific budget proposals more often than not. But there is no question about his value to the Administration as the point man for the President’s quest of a smaller federal establishment.

Stockman is leaving official Washington after 4 1/2 years as budget director and two terms in the U.S. House from Michigan’s 4th District. And still he is only 38 years old. It would not be surprising if Stockman is called on to serve another administration at some future time. No doubt, like the good soldier, he would heed the call.