White Males May Increase at White House

As White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta approaches his final recommendations on a long-delayed staff reorganization, aides have begun to recognize a potentially serious political problem--too many white guys.

Panetta has been working for nearly three months on plans to revamp President Clinton’s sometimes chaotic staff--a period far longer than most White House aides had expected. The length of the process already has hurt morale on the staff noticeably and led to considerable bitterness on the part of those whose jobs have been left twisting in the winds.

“It’s just unfair to people,” said one White House aide. “It looks bad for Leon and for the President.”

Panetta has made some changes already, placing three longtime aides, including one woman, in mid-level White House posts, for example. Officials said that broader announcements of at least some of the changes could come any day, although they have been saying that for more than a week.

In the meantime, however, some White House officials have begun making plans of their own, expanding the usual midterm exodus. “Everyone’s worn out,” said one official. “The whole thing is admitting it and convincing your ego to let you leave here.”

Those expected to leave include a majority of the top-ranking women on Clinton’s immediate staff--people largely unknown to the general public except as anonymous “senior White House officials” but who hold posts key to the internal workings of the White House. Although the expected departures will play out over several months and are not likely to end until early next year, they amount to a slow-motion shake-up of the original Clinton staff.

And increasingly, White House officials are concerned that those departures could undermine Clinton’s claim of having an Administration that “looks like America.”

“You can’t really say there’s a problem until you know the other half--who’s going to replace all these folks,” cautioned one senior Clinton aide. “But it is fair to say there’s a concern.”

Although the details of Panetta’s reorganization plan have been kept a tight secret, he is widely expected to announce a new structure that provides for a more central, hierarchical system designed to increase accountability and end the practice of having several senior aides who can freely float from issue to issue. Senior adviser George Stephanopoulos, for example, is likely to become a deputy chief of staff. Bruce Lindsey, Clinton’s longtime friend and White House counselor, is likely to become a deputy to Abner J. Mikva, the new White House counsel who begins his duties in a few weeks.

As part of that new structure, several existing jobs likely will be downgraded, which is one of the factors that has led several high-ranking women at the White House to make plans to leave.

Among those expected to depart are Ricki Seidman, head of the scheduling office, who plans to move to Los Angeles and become executive director of Rock the Vote, the nonpartisan group that aims to increase political participation by young people; Christine Varney, director of Cabinet affairs, who is expected to become a member of the Federal Trade Commission; and Joan Baggett, head of the political office.

In addition, some sources said that Alexis Herman, director of public liaison, probably will return to her private consulting business sometime early next year.

Another highly visible woman whose fate remains uncertain is Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers. The highly public speculation about Myers’ being replaced has angered many of her friends in the White House, who have said that she is being made a scapegoat for problems that top officials would like to blame on “communications.” These officials said that Panetta unfairly has allowed Myers’ job to dangle without resolving the issue.

“Dee Dee’s been through hell for Clinton on everything--from the worst days of the campaign up through the last few months. She deserves to be treated better,” said one official who served with Myers in the campaign.

The evidence does not suggest any conscious effort to squeeze out high-ranking women on the staff. Indeed, Panetta and Clinton made serious efforts to keep Seidman on board, offering her another high-level post in place of her current one. Panetta has also consulted Herman more consistently on policy decisions, officials said.

Some high-ranking men are likely to be leaving as well. Staff secretary John Podesta, for example, has long planned to leave at the end of the year.

Nonetheless, women on Clinton’s staff have long complained about what one high-ranking female aide called an “inclusion problem”--a sense that while women hold many posts, the key players at the White House are all men except for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and her chief of staff, Margaret A. Williams.

Panetta’s attempts to streamline the system by cutting the number of people present at meetings has had the side effect of increasing that problem by more noticeably concentrating authority in a small number of white, male hands.

And while Panetta reportedly has been making efforts to recruit women to replace some of those leaving, he has run into two problems. First, the new chief of staff has also been trying to increase the number of aides with Washington Establishment credentials--an effort that almost inevitably leads to a staff that is older, whiter and more male.

In addition, after 19 months of watching the White House deal with crisis after crisis while presidential aides have worked 14-hour days, many in Washington have been politely listening to Panetta’s pitches and saying “no thanks.”

“People want to have a life,” said one official. “A lot of people just don’t want to come work here.”