Panel Rejects Conservative Picked by President for Humanities Post

A Republican-controlled Senate committee Tuesday rejected President Reagan’s nomination of Edward A. Curran as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, adding to the list of troubles the Administration has faced in trying to appoint conservatives to government posts.

The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, on a pair of 8-8 votes, refused to approve Curran’s nomination or to send it to the Senate floor without recommendation. All seven Democrats and Sen. Robert T. Stafford (R-Vt.) opposed the nomination, which was effectively killed by the votes.

In recent months, several other conservatives either have been rejected or withdrawn from nomination amid criticism in the Senate, including civil rights chief William Bradford Reynolds, who in June failed to win approval to the Justice Department’s No. 3 post.

Ralph Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, hailed the developments as a sign that the Senate is “taking the ‘advise and consent’ responsibility more seriously.”

But at the White House, spokesman Albert R. Brashear warned that “making a connection” between Curran’s rejection and other cases “is too easy and probably not correct.”

Nevertheless, the actions have focused attention on the Administration’s avowed efforts to promote conservative ideals through federal appointments and on the process of presidential selections that must have Senate approval.

The Administration for years has come under attack from many civil rights advocates and from liberals in Congress, who have charged that opponents of civil rights are being brought into agencies that are supposed to promote such rights.

But traditionally it is unusual for the Senate to turn down a President’s choice on ideological grounds. Now, however, some senators are charging that nominees lack professional qualifications.

“They’re sending up ideological mercenaries,” said Paul J. Allen, spokesman for Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), a member of the committee.

Allen said Dodd was “genuinely torn” between wanting to give the President his choice of a nominee and needing to reject a poor choice. He added: “There is now a trend where the only real qualification seems to be someone’s ideological bent. Dodd’s troubled by that.”

‘Reluctant to Oppose’

Similarly, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.) said in an interview that he is “usually reluctant to oppose the President’s choice” but that Curran “didn’t have the respect” of the nation’s academic community. Thus, as principal author of the 1965 legislation that created the humanities endowment, an independent, grant-providing agency, Dodd said he felt especially compelled to vote against Curran.

Democrats also accused Curran of a “failure of candor” because he testified before the same committee in 1981 that, as director of the National Institute of Education, he would promote the agency’s work. A few months after he was confirmed by the Senate, Curran advised Reagan to abolish the institute because it was influenced by “the left.”

In addition to suffering the rejections of Curran and Reynolds, the Administration this year has:

--Seen Donald Devine withdraw his name from renomination to director of the Office of Personnel Management amid charges that he improperly tried to maintain control of the office.

--Decided against nominating Herbert E. Ellingwood, an outspoken Christian fundamentalist and longtime friend of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, to a key Justice Department post that oversees judicial appointments.

--Seen Education Department special assistant Eileen Marie Gardner and another department official resign after Gardner said handicapped people had “selfishly drained resources from the normal school population.”

In each case, strong congressional opposition was a factor, and Neas said this indicated “a greater awareness (in Congress) of the extremists in the Reagan Administration.”