Emergence as Strategist Could Lead to Backlash : First Lady Taking Over a Political Role

She had dreamed of the perfect presidency: eight years of non-stop applause for the man she loves.

But now, as President Reagan’s popularity has plunged during the Iran- contra scandal, Nancy Reagan has moved to the fore not only as her husband’s staunchest defender but also as a political strategist with influence far exceeding that of most presidential wives.

Donald T. Regan is only the latest victim of her mounting effort to repair the President’s image and preserve his place in history. Regan’s resignation last week followed a public display of unseemly feuding with the First Lady, including public disclosure that the two had hung up on each other in the midst of telephone conversations and reports that the President, badgered by his wife to dump his chief of staff, once angrily exclaimed to her: “Get off my back!”

Now, as the effort to rescue and rebuild the Reagan presidency becomes a top priority at the White House, sources close to Nancy Reagan expect her to become still more active in propelling the President into activities that might deflect attention from the scandal. Some even suggest that another summit meeting between the President and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev may be high on her agenda.

“She feels her husband is basically a man of peace,” said Washington political consultant Nancy Reynolds, a longtime friend of the Reagans. “She’s not pushing for anything, but she hopes. You remember how Gorbachev was supposed to be coming here and they were supposed to be going there? I can’t believe she doesn’t think it (another summit) would be helpful to move the process along.”

Mrs. Reagan’s friends call her the President’s “strength” and his “guiding light.” But others have been left with an uncomfortable feeling about Nancy Reagan’s more assertive role at a time when the presidential commission headed by former Sen. John Tower (R-Tex.) has criticized the President for his hands-off management style.

So dramatic is Nancy Reagan’s emergence during the current crisis that some of those close to her have begun to express concern about a possible backlash, noting that the American public has sometimes been uncomfortable with first ladies who seemed too much involved in affairs of state.

“Look at Eleanor Roosevelt,” said Tipper Gore, the wife of Sen. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.). “She was a very strong woman in her own right at a time when the general society did not reflect that kind of reality, and she was criticized by a lot of people.”

Rosalynn Carter, too, was faulted by many for her role as an adviser to her husband--as well as for her occasional attendance at Cabinet meetings.

Many in Washington are also recalling the extreme case of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, who was dubbed the “secret President” after Woodrow Wilson fell ill a year and a half before leaving office. Both the public and history proved harsh in their judgments of Edith Wilson.

Unlike Wilson, who was physically incapacitated, however, President Reagan remains an active occupant of the Oval Office. And Mrs. Reagan’s activities thus far stop well short of Mrs. Wilson’s dominant role in the day-to-day operations of the White House.

But in the past, the public has been resistant even to less assertive first ladies.

Role of 35 Years

For Nancy Reagan, the public’s sudden perception of her position as Ronald Reagan’s most trusted adviser--and fiercest guardian of his image--only has served to confirm a role she has assumed all along for her husband during their 35 years of marriage. Whether working behind the scenes for a personnel shift or gently cuing her husband with answers to questions shouted by reporters, she has always been an active wife.

“She’s strong, a very strong woman,” said political consultant Reynolds. “She has a one-track mind in the best sense of the word: my husband. My husband, and what is good for him.”

“There is nothing that I don’t tell Nancy,” the President has said more than once of the wife he calls “Mommy.”

Nancy Reagan has played a role in a number of firings--not only Regan’s but those of National Security Adviser Richard V. Allen, Interior Secretary James G. Watt, ambassador to Austria Helene A. Von Damm and 1980 campaign manager John Sears. And she has been linked to several hirings, most notably for ambassadorial posts in Britain and the Vatican.

But friends also point out that Mrs. Reagan does not always win. Recently, for instance, Reagan chose Marlin Fitzwater as chief White House spokesman over Mrs. Reagan’s first choice, Sheila Tate, her own former press secretary.

Gives a Wink

Mrs. Reagan herself, when asked about her influence, alternately demurs and winks.

Her press secretary, Elaine Crispen, insisted that Mrs. Reagan “is very frustrated to be portrayed as the heavy when she isn’t. She’s always described herself as Ronald Reagan’s sounding board and if there are things she wants to discuss he is always willing to listen. She has said that she does have a special sense for people. She doesn’t get into policy. Her antennae will go up if she feels someone’s interest is not in the best interest of her husband.”

The First Lady herself put it more forcefully in a speech this week to the American Camping Assn.: “I don’t think most people associate me with leeches or how to get them off. But I know how to get them off. I’m an expert at it.”

If Mrs. Reagan does lobby her husband for another summit with Gorbachev, those close to her say, her purpose would be not merely to encourage peace but to protect the judgment rendered by history of the Reagan presidency.

“It’s her primary concern, obviously,” said Charles Z. Wick, director of the U.S. Information Agency and a longtime Reagan friend.

Hopes Threatened

“In terms of the present morass,” said one former White House associate who asked not to be named, Nancy Reagan recognized the possible consequences for her husband’s reputation “well before anyone else.” All at once, this aide said, her hopes of riding off into the California sunset with “the first successful eight-year presidency in recent history” were seriously threatened--if not outright shattered.

“Can she repolish the President’s image?” the former associate asked. “No, but she can grab a cloth. And she will. You bet she will.”

Throughout her husband’s first term, Mrs. Reagan had had an all-but-official personal conduit in Michael K. Deaver, the Los Angeles public relations executive who became deputy White House chief of staff. As a rule, she talked with Deaver at least once a day. Often, she talked with him far more than that.

“She always depended on Mike,” a former aide said. When Deaver left the White House in 1985, Nancy Reagan lost her “link in the loop” of White House communications.

Deaver, Chief of Staff James A. Baker III and Counselor to the President Edwin Meese III had formed a triumvirate of top presidential advisers during Reagan’s first term. All three departed in 1985--Baker and Meese to Cabinet posts--and Regan took over as No. 1 presidential aide.

“I believe she tried very hard to establish a relationship with Regan,” a former White House associate said. “Regan never understood her importance in the whole picture and gave her short shrift. . . . Regan barred the door to her and it stayed barred.”

A former Marine and Wall Street executive, Regan on several occasions made remarks disparaging to women that may have rankled Mrs. Reagan.

Angry at Regan

But it was Regan’s apparent determination to exert iron-fisted control over the President that made Mrs. Reagan boil. She bristled at what she saw as a power-grab by Regan after the President’s first cancer surgery in July, 1985. She fumed when Regan publicly compared his position to “the shovel brigade that follows a parade down Main Street.” Regan, those close to Mrs. Reagan say she decided, was also responsible for Reagan’s clumsiness at his last nationally televised news conference on Nov. 19.

Determined to protect her husband’s health, the First Lady was always careful to limit the presidential schedule. Reagan’s “9-to-5 reputation,” one former aide said, “was her doing.”

Post-Surgery Schedule

When Reagan, who recently turned 76, was recovering from his January prostate surgery, Nancy Reagan fretted that he returned too quickly to a full White House schedule. Her fury with Regan grew to enormous proportions when the chief of staff decided to have Reagan deliver his State of the Union speech on Jan. 27, just three weeks after the surgery.

A longtime adviser to the President suggested that Nancy Reagan sometimes helps wield the presidential hatchet in such matters as speech content, debate preparation and some personnel questions.

“He’s sort of a softie,” this adviser said. “He hates to criticize you, hates to tell you things you may be doing wrong, hates to make you change what you’re doing. So sometimes, when Mrs. Reagan raises something like, ‘Why aren’t we doing X?’ it’s not really her speaking, it’s him.”

USIA Director Wick, saying that the White House is headed by a “great husband-wife team,” cited her “great instincts” with people.