Reagan Relies on ‘Stooges’--Iacocca

Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca, in a new book, harshly criticizes President Reagan’s management style, saying he “delegated to a bunch of stooges and then went off and rode horses.”

Reagan is “a warm and wonderful human being,” but is “totally incapable of focusing on any issue,” Iacocca writes in his book, “Talking Straight,” due out next month and excerpted in the current issue of People magazine.

The Chrysler chief, who organized the celebration of the Statue of Liberty’s 100th anniversary in 1986, said he has been a guest at the White House and met with Reagan several times.

“Anytime you talked to him about something he would drift off into an anecdote,” Iacocca wrote. “And once he gave the punch line, the show was over and you were out the door.”

The President’s flawed management style was most visible in his choice of staff members, Iacocca wrote.

“Reagan delegated to a bunch of stooges and then went off and rode horses,” he wrote. Iacocca did not specify which particular aides he was referring to.

Iacocca, 63, said he met with Reagan “a couple of times a year” until Donald T. Regan became chief of staff in 1985. “Then they locked the doors at the White House and pulled in the welcome mat.”

The auto manufacturer said he had no plans to go into politics.

“I have no desire to switch professions at this late stage of my life,” he said. “Politics is a profession. To be good at it, you’ve got to live and breathe it. I’m good at what I do, but it’s taken me 40 years to get the hang of it.”

Iacocca predicted a Democrat will win the presidential election in November.

“The odds are overpowering that we’re going to have a very activist Democratic President,” he wrote. “I don’t think the Republicans can make it. The people will vote for the Democrats if they put up Mickey Mouse.”