Economic Moves, Tactical Gains : Appointments aimed at Congress, Wall Street

In the end President-elect Bill Clinton’s public moves over the last two days may say less about his plans for dealing with the economy than they do about his approach to dealing with Congress and Wall Street.

The economy remains a puzzlement. Has the recession reached bottom and, in many parts of the country, though not (alas) California, has the long-awaited recovery begun? Or is the economy, despite some recent positive indicators, still mired in serious structural and historical problems that transcend the usual undulating business cycle of downturn/upturn?

Whatever the answer, the President-elect obviously is betting that by Jan. 20 the economy, one way or the other, will still be the No. 1 concern. That sense was evident in Thursday’s press conference in Little Rock at which most of the key members of his economic team were introduced. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, as Treasury secretary, was Clinton’s first major appointment. The second was Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), to be head of the Office of Management and Budget. And from Wall Street, Clinton tapped Robert Rubin, co-chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., for the National Economic Council--a Clinton creation whose purpose is yet to be made wholly clear--and investment banker Roger Altman to serve as Bentsen’s deputy. Former Congressional Budget Office Director Alice Rivlin was tapped to be Panetta’s deputy.

Say what you want about this group, radical and unpredictable it’s not. But this kind of team probably makes sense for a President who has decided that what might threaten him the most is a Congress and a Wall Street that turn from friends to foes.

Clinton also knows that his relations with Congress will require more than simply surrounding himself with aides that know its corridors well or who speak the same language as Wall Street. The President also needs the American people, so that when he moves he is seen, as President Ronald Reagan was often seen by Congress, to be expressing a broad public consensus.

Central to the new Administration’s relationship with the public will be a sense that the officials whom Clinton appoints are people of overriding honesty and integrity.

To that end, the new code of ethics for presidential appointees should help. On the very day before these economic appointments, the Clinton transition effort issued those ethics guidelines with maximum publicity.

They are not so rigid that they preclude someone like Bentsen, a wealthy man with wide-ranging personal investments, from serving. But they do set new, clearer standards for ethics in public service that appointees in future administrations will have to match. That is certainly a step in the right direction.