Bush Picks Yeutter to Take Over GOP Reins; No Opposition Seen

President Bush moved Monday to solve one of his most pressing political problems, naming Agriculture Secretary Clayton K. Yeutter as his choice to replace the ailing Lee Atwater as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Yeutter, 60, will be recommended to the committee, without likelihood of rejection, at a Jan. 25 meeting in Washington, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.

Yeutter will be taking over the committee as party professionals and the political organization within the White House begin to consider the President’s anticipated reelection campaign. His initial tasks will include soothing the ruffled feathers of conservative activists and coordinating the work of the Republican national organization with that of the White House, where crucial campaign decisions will be made.

Atwater, under treatment for a brain tumor since last spring, had a large role in developing Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign. Yeutter is not seen as a likely candidate to play such a central role, but his selection will put the party machinery in the hands of a Bush loyalist, if not an experienced strategist, who is known as an accomplished fund-raiser.

Yeutter will hold the title of national chairman, and Atwater will hold the undefined post of general chairman, Fitzwater said.

Bush originally had offered the party chairmanship to William J. Bennett, the former secretary of education and director of the office of drug control policy. After initially accepting the job, Bennett backed out in December when White House legal experts questioned his plans to seek substantial outside income by writing two books for which he already held contracts.

Among those said to be on the list of replacements for Yeutter at the Agriculture Department are former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.); Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jack Parnell, the former director of California’s agriculture and fish and game departments, and Jo Ann Smith, assistant agriculture secretary for marketing and inspection services.

Yeutter, who became agriculture secretary at the start of the Bush Administration, is a lawyer and agricultural economist who operated a 2,500-acre farm in Nebraska for nearly 20 years while teaching agricultural economics at the University of Nebraska. In the 1970s, he served as president of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where agriculture commodities are traded. From 1985 to 1989, he served as the U.S. trade representative in the Ronald Reagan Administration.