McLarty Known as Methodical and Disciplined

For well over a year, as Bill Clinton has moved from being the little-known governor of an obscure state to President-elect of the United States, Thomas (Mack) McLarty has moved beside him in the shadows.

On Saturday, McLarty stepped forward into the spotlight as Clinton’s designee to become White House chief of staff.

And the sustained applause from top Clinton aides that greeted the announcement left little doubt about the popularity of the choice, at least among the people McLarty is likely to be managing. “This is the answer to a prayer,” said one close Clinton aide who had been debating whether to accept a White House post.

But the reasons those prayers were uttered in the first place make clear what a difficult job McLarty has undertaken. For as his aides discovered throughout the campaign, Bill Clinton can be an extraordinarily difficult person to manage.

Both during the campaign and in his latter years as governor, Clinton tended to resist centralizing power in any single subordinate. He likes a decision-making structure looser and more informal than is typical in business--or for that matter, politics--and he is known for delaying decisions until confident that he has heard all points of view, often long after those around him feel is wise.

In addition, McLarty is all but certain to find himself surrounded in the White House by a swarm of aggressive young aides--from transition communications director George Stephanopoulos on down--eager to make their mark on the Administration, as well as Cabinet members eager to push their department’s issues to the fore.

The 46-year-old Arkansas businessman also will face the additional burden of Washington political figures skeptical of outsiders and who inevitably will recall memories of the unhappy experiences of other White House chiefs who lacked significant Washington experience--notably Hamilton Jordan for Jimmy Carter and John H. Sununu for George Bush.

But against those formidable obstacles, McLarty brings several strengths.

First, Clinton aides saw the appointment as a welcome sign that their boss recognizes his own limitations and his need to have near him a disciplined and methodical manager.

“Clinton likes to get input from hundreds of people, and the danger of that is that decisions don’t get made or get made and don’t get implemented,” said one close adviser.

“During the campaign, what James was able to do was make sure that once a decision was made it was carried out,” the adviser said, referring to Clinton strategist James Carville. “That’s what Mack will do.”

But unlike the idiosyncratic Carville, McLarty is known for his ability as an orderly administrator. “Mack leaves the office every day with a clean desk and all his telephone calls returned,” said Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.). “He does not let problems fester.”

In addition, McLarty, unlike some potential candidates for the chief of staff’s job, has a close and warm relationship with the team of young aides with whom Clinton has surrounded himself.

For several weeks, he has been an in-house favorite for the job among those who are likely to staff the Clinton White House. He is therefore unlikely to face the sort of early-term sniping that has hindered some predecessors.

“He is an honest and extremely fair person who has the support and affection of people throughout the campaign,” said Mark Gearan, deputy director of Clinton’s transition.

The selection of a chief of staff who is close friends to both Bill and Hillary Clinton also guarantees that the post will not be a barrier, as it has in past administrations, to a First Lady who wants to play an influential role in the White House.

Finally, and most importantly, there is the depth of his relationship with Clinton. “When White House chiefs of staff have gotten in trouble in the past,” said another aide, “it has usually been because they felt insecure in their relationship with the President” and felt compelled to shut others out.

“Mack and the governor have a relationship that has lasted 41 years.”

Both Clinton and McLarty referred to that relationship in the press conference announcing his appointment, with Clinton talking about how he had known his friend “since we were children in kindergarten” in Hope, Ark. McLarty, whether intentionally or not, sent a clear signal to any potential rivals when he noted that Clinton’s mother “refers to me as her son’s oldest friend.”

“The governor trusts him implicitly,” says Rahm Emmanuel, Clinton’s chief fund-raiser and inaugural committee chief.

Quiet and reserved and decidedly not flamboyant, McLarty received little attention from the press that swarmed around Clinton and his campaign. He preferred it that way.

“I cannot imagine turning on ‘Crossfire’ and seeing Mack McLarty,” said Pryor, referring to the confrontational CNN program that Sununu now regularly co-hosts. But campaign aides say Clinton made few key decisions without consulting him.

Last month, as Clinton wrestled with a bitter in-house argument about who should run his transition staff, McLarty was one of the key advisers he turned to. And in the weeks since, McLarty, along with transition chief Warren Christopher and fellow Arkansan Bruce Lindsey, has regularly joined the President-elect, Hillary Clinton and Vice President-elect Al Gore in the private meetings leading to Cabinet appointments.

McLarty’s background in the energy industry has led to some trepidation about him from environmentalists. But Clinton aides note that his company received awards for environmental sensitivity.

And unlike Sununu, McLarty comes to the White House with no known policy agenda. “Clinton wants an honest broker. He doesn’t want a guy with a lot of his own agendas at the gate,” said transition press secretary Dee Dee Myers.

McLarty frankly indicated Saturday that his role will not match those of previous chiefs, such as James A. Baker III or Donald T. Regan, who seemed to operate as virtual deputy presidents for chief executives considerably less hands-on than Clinton.

“Clearly we are in a supporting role, to facilitate information to the President . . . and to make sure that President-elect Clinton sees the people that he wants to see,” he said.

Married and the father of two, McLarty graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1968 and immediately took over his family’s business--selling and leasing cars and trucks. By the time he sold the company a decade later, he had built a sizable personal fortune.

In the meantime, McLarty also began a political career. He served as treasurer when Pryor successfully ran for governor in 1974, won election to the state Legislature and, under Pryor’s sponsorship, chaired the state Democratic Party from 1974 to 1976.

Lauter reported from Washington and Brownstein from Little Rock.

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