Reagan’s Still a Force to Reckon With : It’s the Office, Not the Man, That Lets the Besieged Carry On

What a remarkable institution the American presidency is! In 200 years it has endured the stretching of its limits by a Lincoln and two Roosevelts and an equally dramatic contraction at the hands of a Fillmore and two Harrisons. It was a docile lap dog under Taft and a fierce leviathan under Nixon. Lyndon Johnson used it to further his social reformation of America, and it has served Ronald Reagan equally well in his counterreformation. James Buchanan found nothing in its powers to justify his crushing of the Southern secession movement in 1860, but a few months later Abraham Lincoln felt no such inhibition when he called for 75,000 men to suppress the rebellion.

At its best the presidency is a splendid instrument of national leadership, at its worst a weapon of mass destruction. But the presidency’s inherent strengths as an institution guarantee that it can never be ignored. This, above all, Reagan has going for him in the last 17 months of his presidency.

What is so remarkable about the presidency is that in the course of 200 years its formal powers have changed so little. Aside from three amendments dealing with the method of election, the two-term limitation and the mechanism for succession in the event of presidential disability, Article IIis the perfect constitutional fossil. To be sure, the experience of two centuries with its attendant wars, rebellions and panics has caused us to raise our expectations of the presidency so that a modern-day Franklin Pierce could scarcely be imagined. Nonetheless, the formal grant of powers has remained practically unaltered. Those powers enable even the most politically impaired President to be a force to reckon with.

It is instructive to reflect on what might have taken place in 1974 and 1975 had Richard M. Nixon not heeded the counsel of his allies to resign or face certain impeachment and likely conviction. The process, from beginning to end, would probably have taken the better part of a year. During that time he would have remained in full command of the executive branch. He would have retained the power of the veto, and, while it might not have remained so awesome a weapon as it had been, its use would still have required Congress to muster two-thirds of its members to override.

He could have dismissed and nominated Cabinet officers, who could have served in interim appointments even if not confirmed. Had an international crisis developed, he would still have been able to dispatch troops, subject to the War Powers Act. His proclamations would have had the force of law. He would have had the power to unleash all-out nuclear retaliation. Not bad for a President whose political support had disintegrated.

The reason why Nixon might have persisted and enjoyed some semblance of authority, and why in the next 17 months President Reagan can hope for some important achievements, is simple: Under our system there is no such thing as a caretaker government. Neither is there an American regency. There is always a President vested fully with constitutional authority, and, while his political resources may vary, the formal powers of Presidents are never curtailed. Presidents, moreover, do not hold office by virtue of their party enjoying a majority in Congress. They can fashion coalitions that draw on the opposition party’s support. Reaganomics, after all, was written into law with Democratic votes, as was contra aid and “Star Wars” research. Even Presidents vastly diminished in political resources can command center stage and overawe an opposition whose only base is in Congress. When the opposition lacks effective leaders, as Democrats now do, even the fortunes of politically enfeebled Presidents receive a boost.

So the five objectives set forth by Reagan in his address to the nation Wednesday night are not just so much pie in the sky. He has a good shot at three of them: the Bork nomination and two agreements with the Soviet Union, concerning intermediate-range and intercontinental missiles. There might even be a surprise on the fourth, a peace agreement for Central America. The fifth, a balanced-budget amendment, is a hoary presidential fantasy that would be harmless enough if it did not distract him from submitting balanced budgets to Congress on his own.

But three out of five would not be bad for an Administration so seriously besieged. If such a solid record of accomplishment were to emerge from the waning months of Reagan’s presidency, a good share of the credit would have to go to Reagan himself for resisting the temptation to spend the remainder of his term clearing brush at Rancho del Cielo. The greater share, however, should be reserved for the durable and flexible institution of the presidency that gives even the most beleaguered President the wherewithal to conduct the nation’s business in an orderly fashion and provides uncommon Presidents, whatever their political condition, with the chance for significant achievement.