Rightist Cheek

With considerable cheek, the far right has stepped forward to claim its “share” of key appointments in the new Bush Administration. The ultraconservatives apparently want to do for the Bush Administration what they did for the Reagan Administration: Provide disasters comparable to James G. Watt at Interior, Anne Gorsuch Burford at the Environmental Protection Agency and Edwin Meese III as attorney general.

Far-right guru Richard A. Viguerie even insisted that Bush appoint an ultraconservative to at least one of three key jobs: White House chief of staff, personnel director or attorney general. But Bush already has said that he will name Chase Untermeyer as personnel director. Craig Fuller is likely to be chief of staff, and there is no reason to replace former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh, a thoroughly reasonable and competent man who already is in place at the Justice Department. Richard Darman, a former deputy of James A. Baker III at the Treasury Department, would be an excellent candidate for director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Bush cannot ignore any spectrum of his party. No one should be eliminated from consideration for ideology alone, not even a Democrat. Any new President has to satisfy the broad array of constituencies and geographies that make up a national election. But members of his staff and Cabinet must be compatible with the President and willing to follow his policy direction--not to mention matters of experience, competence and good judgment.

The Bush Administration is expected to be populated with more pragmatists and moderates than the Reagan team has been--certainly the team of Ronald Reagan’s first term. Bush noted the day after the election that “I will, for the most part, bring in a brand-new team of people from across the country, and, in my view, that will reinvigorate the process.”

There is need for new vigor. This does not mean a Bush Administration manned by closet liberals. Bush is a conservative, and his top advisers are conservatives. What they are not is ideologues for the sake of ideology. There is a massive government to run, not a right-wing think tank. Most of the work of the appointees involves the implementation of programs passed by Congress. Some of the early Reagan ideologues spent far too much time trying to subvert programs rather than administering the law of the land.

Times have changed in eight years. Bush does not come to the White House with a mandate for fundamental social change. He has not aligned himself to the extent that Reagan did with the aspirations of the Christian right. He does not have a new Republican majority in the Senate to pave the way for confirmation.

The far right’s expectations are racing ahead of reality. A Heritage Foundation official said that one tip-off would be what happens in the Interior Department. A bad sign would be a wholesale shake-up there, but he did not expect that to happen. In fact, if Bush is to implement the more enlightened environmental policies that he promised in the campaign, a considerable number of Interior officials will be job-hunting come January.