Reagan Effort for Contras Toughest Since MX

In the second year of President Reagan’s second term, his White House has a well-earned reputation for proficiency at making Congress, including the Democratic-controlled House, see things its way.

And the current drive to win approval for $100 million in aid for Nicaraguan rebels is said by Administration supporters to be the equal of any of the Reagan lobbying efforts--and the most ambitious since last spring’s successful campaign to continue funding for the MX missile.

“He’s really working hard,” Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said of the President’s effort after a 30-minute White House strategy session Tuesday afternoon. By Dole’s reckoning, Reagan was in high gear, having already reached 40 senators and “a pile of House members.”

Just before Dole and Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived at the White House, Reagan concluded a 45-minute sales pitch to 20 Democratic House members, considered to be opponents of his proposal for aid to the rebels, known as contras .

Close-up Persuasion Effort

“The President has been involved for about two weeks in one-on-one and small-group lobbying,” White House spokesman Larry Speakes said. Reagan started out meeting with supporters to strengthen their resolve and has also met “two or three times” with House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois and other members of the House GOP high command to keep them informed of strategy and tactics.

According to one well-placed source, the White House has made some tangible progress since the President’s speech Sunday night, perhaps picking up as many as five votes. But that still leaves Reagan trailing by five to 10 votes, and the White House is said to be particularly vexed by the unwillingness of about 15 GOP House members to go along with the President on the issue.

The White House is “really turning on the heat,” this source said. “Mitchell Daniels (the top White House political aide) is offering favors or holding them back, but so far they’re still holding out.”

Meanwhile, the campaign continues on television and in the press as Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan appear on network news programs.

Perhaps it is just coincidence that the White House communications director, Patrick J. Buchanan, seems to be showing up only on the late-night shows. Or it might reflect White House concern that Buchanan’s hard-hitting tactics could backfire.

Buchanan, once a speech writer and staff aide to President Richard M. Nixon, declared in a blistering article written for the Washington Post’s opinion page March 5: “With the vote on contra aid, the Democratic Party will reveal whether it stands with Ronald Reagan and the resistance--or Daniel Ortega and the Communists.”

“Pat’s a fire-eater, and that article was his high-water mark,” said a senior White House staff member who did not want to be identified by name. “It was a 2-by-4 that got people’s attention. But it was heavy-handed, and the President and Regan thought it was a little bit too much to keep on like that.”

Veterans, Businessmen

Besides his network appearances, Buchanan is venting his conservative fervor in pep rallies staged for leaders of various constituency groups--veterans, religious organizations and businessmen--who meet in the Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House. They hear first-hand from Reagan the presidential arguments on the contra vote and then listen to Buchanan, as another White House aide put it “to fire them up” so they can help build public support for the aid proposal.

Previous success on major fiscal and national security issues has given White House officials reason for optimism that they will ultimately win this battle, too. But, while predicting victory, the President’s supporters conceded that there are still hours of struggle ahead before Thursday’s crucial vote.

In the end, these officials say, the White House will get the votes it needs to win. But even if it does draw enough House members to support the contra aid package, Speakes said, “we probably won’t be able to count them until Thursday.”