Meese Angers Senior Aides of President : They Complain in Private About His Refusal to Resign

Two senior White House officials, reluctantly breaking the silence they had been ordered to maintain last week on the controversy surrounding Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, on Sunday expressed strong irritation with the attorney general for refusing to step down.

One of the officials, doing little to hide his annoyance with Meese, went so far as to portray him as being selfish in his refusal to resign and naive in blaming his problems on political attacks by critics motivated merely out of disagreement with President Reagan’s policies.

“What Meese does is he hurts the party,” one Republican aide said. “He gives people the opportunity to say Republicans are all thieves.”

Strongest Remarks to Date

The remarks are the strongest to date by White House officials made publicly or privately since controversy erupted anew over Meese when two top-level Justice Department officials and four of their aides resigned Tuesday in what associates say was an attempt to distance themselves from the attorney general’s legal troubles.

Moreover, the biting comments indicate that the White House remains deeply concerned about Meese despite an interim report issued Friday by independent counsel James C. McKay that said no indictment of the attorney general was being planned “based on the evidence to date” for his role in a controversial Iraqi pipeline project and other matters under investigation.

Among those close to the President who have been hoping that Meese would leave, there were complaints that McKay had become a “wimp,” sources said.

Reagan More Upbeat

Reagan is said to be “certainly aware of the concerns” about the attorney general but has shown no sign of wavering in his support of Meese, a friend and associate for more than two decades. And sources said McKay’s report has made Reagan even more upbeat.

A senior White House official, reflecting the prevailing view that Meese is firm in his position, said: “There may be some people who don’t like the way it is going, but as long as the President is as committed as he says he is, if they don’t like it, they’re the ones who can leave.”

Presidential Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr., well aware of Reagan’s adamant refusal to criticize Meese, had ordered senior White House staff members to remain silent on the issue, sources said. Another senior official, describing the strength of Baker’s directive, said: “You go into the closet and have a conversation with yourself.”

The two officials interviewed this weekend, neither of whom would speak publicly on the record, made it clear that they were speaking only for themselves, and one stressed that there was “no effort, concerted or otherwise, to get Ed to leave.” Nevertheless, their comments and those of others interviewed over the last week in Washington and Santa Barbara reflect a growing frustration with the attorney general among the senior White House ranks.

Although one official indicated that there is no serious expectation that Meese will resign, he said many in the White House do not believe that Meese is in for a “free ride” because of the independent counsel’s statement.

He predicted that McKay’s final report will not be the “clean bill of health” that Meese would like and said the attorney general may face other problems if more details are disclosed about the reasons leading to last week’s resignations of Deputy Atty. Gen. Arnold I. Burns and Assistant Atty. Gen. William F. Weld, head of the criminal division.

‘Blind Spots’ Cited

When asked why Meese has chosen to stay in office when other officials facing lesser allegations have resigned to save the President embarrassment, one senior White House staff member said the attorney general has “blind spots” to the problems he is causing Reagan.

Many in the Administration and the Republican Party fear that the political fallout over Meese may also affect Vice President George Bush’s presidential campaign.

Some close to the Bush camp have taken to speaking of Meese in particularly disparaging tones, at least in private, reflecting concern that his continued tenure may encourage Democratic efforts to take advantage of the so-called “sleaze factor” stemming from questions of unethical behavior by Meese and other top Administration officials.

“It’s clear to the Bush people this is going to be a lingering campaign issue,” one senior White House official said. “Certainly, as Ed stays, the controversy is going to linger, to be used by the Democrats.”

A Liability for Bush

That assessment was echoed on Capitol Hill by Democratic and Republican leaders alike. Speaking on television interview programs Sunday, they predicted that the cloud hanging over Meese will be a liability for Bush and the GOP in the November elections.

While the Meese affair may not be a pivotal issue by itself, the attorney general “is not an asset to the Republican Party,” said Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.). He added that Meese “is certainly a very good political target, and a lot of people are shooting at that good target.”

Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), a key Justice Department ally who held a session with the attorney general last week to inform him of increasingly “deep concern” among his congressional colleagues, also met with Baker on the Meese controversy, a White House official said.

One senior White House official said that Thurmond reported to Baker that “things are deteriorating on the Hill,” referring to the situation in Congress, but Thurmond’s message was viewed with some skepticism because he also reported that he had a favorite candidate should the attorney general’s job become open.

For their part, Democrats continued to hammer away at the attorney general, blasting him for alleged unethical behavior and demanding his resignation in spite of McKay’s report that he has insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Meese thus far in his investigation.

An Array of Accusations

One Democrat, Sen. George J. Mitchell of Maine, appearing on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” with Boschwitz, declared that Meese devotes most of his time to defending himself against an array of accusations and should step down in the interests of the nation.

“The attorney general has displayed an almost spectacular casualness in his personal affairs, in giving the appearance of aiding others who have in turn provided financial assistance to him, directly or indirectly,” Mitchell said.

Boschwitz, who is chairman of the party’s Senate Campaign Committee, reflected the uneasiness of many Republicans over Meese’s problems.

“I think that the man is entitled to some basic fairness and his day in court,” he said, adding: “I think that he’s operating under a cloud, and I think that limits his scope of operation.”

McKay has been investigating Meese’s involvement with the scandal-rocked Wedtech Corp. and a proposed $1-billion Iraqi oil pipeline project, as well as actions the attorney general took that could have affected the regional Bell telephone companies at a time when he owned stock in them.

Racketeering Charges

E. Robert Wallach, a longtime friend of Meese, has been indicted in the Wedtech case on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges. In addition, Wallach allegedly attempted to use his influence with the attorney general to win U.S. support for the proposed pipeline, which was never built.

In a 1985 memo to Meese on the pipeline, Wallach wrote that Israel was to be paid as much as $700 million for a guarantee not to attack the project. Wallach also wrote that he understood part of the funds would go to the Israeli Labor Party, an arrangement that has raised questions about possible violations of U.S. anti-bribery laws.

W. Franklyn Chinn, Meese’s former financial adviser, also has been indicted in the Wedtech scandal on charges that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence Meese.

As the controversy has grown, several prominent Republicans have called on Meese to resign. On Sunday, former Atty. Gen. Elliot L. Richardson said Reagan had allowed the problem to get out of control because he has been “much too tolerant, too amiable, too willing to let his friends get away with things . . . I don’t think he’s been tough enough with them.”

Decline in Morale

Richardson, appearing on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” also charged that morale at the Justice Department has declined to its lowest point since President Richard M. Nixon fired Richardson and other officials as part of the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973.

Although Democrats plan to exploit these controversies in the November election, Republicans have vowed to turn the issue against them. Some have said they plan to divert attention from Meese by focusing on the activities of Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) and other members of the Democratic-controlled House.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), who also appeared on the NBC broadcast, gave a preview of that campaign when he made a blunt reference to Rep. Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.), who is also involved in the Wedtech case.

Refers to Conviction

“We have a member of Congress who’s been convicted and given a very heavy sentence of a felony. The gentleman is on a second criminal trial,” he said.

Hyde, contrasting Biaggi’s case with the demands for Meese’s resignation, added: “We’re wisely waiting for the legal process to play itself out, in fairness to that gentleman. It would seem to me, you’d let the same process play itself out with the attorney general.”

First Lady Nancy Reagan, who in the past has exerted considerable influence on the President in crucial personnel matters and was instrumental in the removal of former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, was said to have stayed out of the Meese situation because “there is a clear understanding that the relationship” between Meese and the President “is a lot deeper than the other personnel matters.”

Mrs. Reagan and the President were spending their Easter vacation Sunday at their ranch north of Santa Barbara, and one official said he did not expect to see a change in her attitude on the Meese matter.

A senior White House official made the point that the latest controversy surrounding Meese is only one in a series dating back to his confirmation as attorney general and that “every time people think, ‘we’ve got him this time,’ lo and behold he’s gotten out of it.”

Just as in the past, this official said, when Meese comes under attack, the criticism makes him more determined to stay in office. So, he said, the combination of the “drumbeat” in Congress and McKay’s report on Friday simply “digs him in deeper than a week ago.”

Josh Getlin reported from Washington and James Gerstenzang from Santa Barbara.