The President's Call: Executive Leadership From FDR to George Bush (82 page)

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Authors: Judith E. Michaels

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Conversely, others are appointed by the president to term offices but serve the legislative branch and so were not included in the study. They include the comptroller general and deputy comptroller of the United States (General Accounting Office), the librarian of Congress, the architect of the Capitol, the public printer and deputy public printer (Government Printing Office), the nineteen judges of the U.S. Tax Court, and the three members of the Copyright Royalty Tribunal.
Those serving in the regulatory bodies constitute a specialized genre of presidential appointee. Though appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve in the executive branch, they, unlike the other PASs, are not subject to presidential discipline. Their term appointment protects them from removal, either by the president who appointed them or by his successor. While the president can replace the chair, that person continues to serve out her or his term on the IRC. Only resignation, death, or malfeasance in office can separate commissioners from their positions before their term expires.
Therefore, IRC PASs are spared many of the overtly partisan pressures that their other PAS colleagues face. And, indeed, in the interviews the IRC PASs, much like the inspectors general, asserted their independence from the White House. Often, the cases that come before their commission have a White House component or interest, so executive contact with the IRC PASs (ex parte communication) is strictly forbidden. Said one PAS, "The 'I' is very important. It makes the IRCs almost a fourth branch of government." "The IRC has tremendous independence to 'call them as you see them,"' said another, noting that this is particularly healthy for the development of regulatory law.
Pamela Talkin, a Democratic member of the FLRA, for example, said that she "never felt any pressure from the White House to be or say anything other than what I believed. I feared there would be a time when I might have to take a standit's never come. We were told to take a low profile regarding Bush's reelection campaign. I found myself actually shocked at the lack of partisan pressure and how committed people are to doing their jobs beyond the politics."
Of course, this did not prevent the White House from exerting pressure on the commissioners. Nevertheless, the IRC PASs interviewed all stressed the independence of their agency. As one put it, "The White House leaves us alone. . . .. We can submit our budget directly to Congress, bypassing OMB if we want to."
Of all the PASs interviewed, the IRCs seemed the most relaxed as a group, the ones most likely to have the time to think about the larger picture, about the philosophy of law and its application in government, and perhaps, the ones most likely to have time to respond to a GAO survey.
 
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Another study might look only at the PASs in this category or might exclude them altogether in order to get a clearer picture of the more purely political appointees who serve solely at the pleasure of the president who appoints them.
Nonetheless, little difference emerged between the responses of term-appointed PASs and the others. For example, their responses were within three percentage points of one another in judging CSESs' responsiveness to political direction and competence. However, a few of the Bush PAS Survey's twenty-six indicators for job satisfaction did elicit a significant difference between the IRCs and the other PASs, as noted in table 14 in chapter 8.
Hiring and Firing PASs
Of issue in every administration is the degree of independence each cabinet secretary is given in choosing her or his subordinates. While Reagan closely controlled this process, Bush, as discussed previously, started his term with a cabinet government, in which the secretary has primary appointing authority within her or his agency. He soon shifted away from that model, however, and in the second round of hirings changed to a more White House-dominated style.
As expected, feelings among the PASs about cabinet government fell along two demarcations. HUD's Keating felt it resulted in "a more viable and functioning team because the secretary can create her or his own team. Outstanding secretaries bring in outstanding people. Less competent secretaries attract less competent people."
Ted Barreaux, who worked in the Bush transition, said that Bush let his cabinet members choose their own team more than any other president. In contrast to Keating, he felt it was a mistaken strategy.
The secretary builds a team loyal to her or him. When she or he leaves, if the team stays it is loyal to neither the new secretary nor to Bush. Reagan chose people more on personal loyalty to himself than on philosophy. Consequently, there was little ideological theme to the Reagan pudding, with disastrous consequences (i.e., scandals in the SEC and FCC). . .. Reagan was not interventionist in the regulatory mode. He trusted the business community to "do the right thing." Instead they took the opportunity to make money.
Barreaux judged the Kennedy White House the best in terms of getting a team in place that was generally competent and loyal to the presi-
 
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dent. ''Clark Clifford ran the JFK transition. He got rid of all the Eisenhower appointees by January 20th. He knew the cabinet member would rely on his or her own team."
The flip side of hiring is, of course, firing. How do PASs actually get fired? There is no clean and easy way to do it and some, such as the inspectors general, have argued that they cannot be fired, short of malfeasance in office. Also, as discussed above, firing a political appointee can be politically hazardous, alienating the PAS's friends and constituency or implying poor judgment in hiring on the president's part.
According to Barreaux, when the decision is made that a PAS has to go, the agency head is invariably the one who goes to the White House to initiate the proceedings. First, she or he and the agency's chief of staff go to the head of the PPO and then to the chief of staff at the White House. Personality and policies are the usual causes for dismissal, though occasionally sexual harassment rears its ugly head and does seem to be taken seriously.
At the assistant secretary level the head of the PPO contacts the PAS and usually offers her or him an alternative position, sometimes a lateral transfer to an equal position, but usually there is at least a subtle downgrading of position. Sometimes the PAS is transferred to a lesser job, perhaps an SES position, which is usually refused for ego reasons. Sometimes a person is just pushed out one small step at a time, "dying the death of a thousand cuts."
7
If the PAS has another job to go to she or he leaves immediately or sets a date of resignation effective upon the confirmation of a successor and then leaves. Because there is no accumulated leave time for PAS positions, departing PASs usually set a date far enough in advance to include vacation time they have not been able to take. Then there is what Barreaux called "the traditional exchange of polite letters: 'Dear Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to serve; sorry I can't stay, etc. . . . ' 'Dear (PAS), Thank you for your dedicated service. I'm sorry you have to go; best wishes, etc."'
Once the decision has been made to get rid of a PAS, the search for a successor is usually expedited. In these cases the White House generally has a candidate in the pipeline and can go through the confirmation process in as few as six weeks. A quick FBI investigation can be cursory and completed in a couple of days, if necessary. The thirty-five interviews required for a PAS (or twenty for a noncareer SES) can be handled by sending thirty-five (or twenty) agents out into the field and doing the interviews in one day.
That, according to Barreaux, was how firings and replacements were handled in the Bush administration. Sound and intelligent advice on ways
 
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to avoid this fate and be a successful PAS were offered by the interviewees to their successors of either party and are discussed in chapter 10.
Conclusion: Strangers No More
Despite the many satisfactions of PAS work, the conflicting pulls on the PASs (inward and outward) created significant tensions both within their agency and within the PASs. The strains of political life, including dealing with the White House and the Congress, will continue to visit the appointees of any future administration. As several PASs noted, it was important for them to understand the realities of politics and the many players in the status-conscious, high stakes, pressure-cooker, fishbowl atmosphere of Washington. They saw the need to realize that any real change would be incremental at best, to take pleasure in small victories, and to take care of their own physical, emotional, and mental health.
The Bush PASs may have felt a certain sense of isolation that came with their territory and agency responsibility, but they did not evidence any interagency lack of connection among themselves. In fact, their early orientation, frequent contacts, and interagency working groups maintained a sense of cohesiveness, if not always unquestioning cooperation, among them. That so many had worked in Reagan's administration gave them something of a long-term sense of collegiality, as well. If the Reagan PASs had a unified sense of vision, the PASs of the Bush administration had a distinct sense of the interconnectedness of their mission, even if they were not always certain of its exact nature. Further, while competition for budget marks any bureaucrat's life, and a certain defense of "mandate" was noted by some of the PASs, it was obvious from the interviews that not only did they understand their boss's preference for team players, they knew personally most of their teammates. This smoothed communication among them, even if it did not always resolve their differences.
Clearly, George Bush's administration was no "government of strangers" in Heclo's sense. As much as possible, given the nature of modern government, it could be termed a "government of colleagues."
Notwithstanding this, friction over PASs' natural desires to expand budget and mission over and against the standard Republican commitment to cutting budgets led to the internal conflict common to any administration. However, political dissension may have been more muted for public consumption in the Bush administration than would be the case in a Democratic administration.
8
Nonetheless, Republicans were wise to fear that their appointees would be "captured" by the bureaucracy. Despite the stridently antiregu-
 
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lation tone of three Republican administrations, only a bare majority of their PASs felt reducing regulations was a key goal, while four-fifths wanted to create
new
policies and regulations. Frequently voiced complaints by Republican PASs about the lack of budgetary resources to do their job should also give antigovernment politicians and tax-cutters pause. A political appointee, like any other conscientious and ambitious employee, wants to do the best job she or he can, and doing so requires resources. Because the demands of the populace are seemingly limitless, there is always more that could be done. Reality tends to overtake ideology for most PASs.
The reality is that running the government takes money. While directives to streamline operations and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse are all to the good and can be counted on to claim headlines, there is no escaping the conclusion that government will not get what it is unwilling to finance. There is only so much that can be cut in a democratic system replete with growing needs and demands, checks and balances, special interests, and divided powers. Antigovernment Reaganite Republicans, Libertarians, and others are doomed to perpetual angst in such a situation.

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