The President's Call: Executive Leadership From FDR to George Bush (84 page)

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Authors: Judith E. Michaels

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BOOK: The President's Call: Executive Leadership From FDR to George Bush
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no, you can always say no. The hardest thing is to say yes because that means you're going to create change. . . . Doers often are not liked in their own building but may have a good reputation outside."
Another PAS noted wryly his naivete in coming to Washington. He was not alone in thinking that he could just concentrate on his job to be a success. He had "done little in the way of networking or socializing or 'schmoozing' and figured the best way to help the president was to do a good job." He soon learned that networking and schmoozing are part of the job. He also committed the near-fatal error of not accepting White House personnel suggestions. Consequently, he was seen as not being a team player, and not being a team player could be the kiss of death in George Bush's administration.
This PAS soon came to understand that political appointees have to be more attuned than he had been to politics, to the party line expected of appointees, and to the prevailing ethos of you-scratch-my-back,-I'll-scratch-yours. He urged that appointees learn ahead of time what it means to be a political appointee. "The 'political' part carries a lot of weight. Ask yourself what the payoff is you're looking for, if it's realistic to expect to find it in a political job, and if it's worth the price."
Two groups in general came in for special scorn from the PASsthe media and special interest groups. "I have no or low respect for the media. I don't trust them. They are headline-grabbers always looking for scandal, whether or not it exists," said one.
On the other hand, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Ivan Selin noted that he had "more sympathy for the media and Congress than do most PASs. The media are the avenues to the peopleevery public servant should consider it part of the job to deal with the media. It's the prime way to deal with their employers (the public)."
PASs saw themselves as public servants serving the public interest. It was a bit of a stretch to think of themselves as "the enemy," as they sometimes appeared to be to advocacy or special interest groups. HUD's Frank Keating counseled, "Watch your backside from the special interest groups . . . that are utterly agenda-driven. If you don't agree completely with them, you're the enemy. You can't think out loud with them or treat them like a peer. They will stab you in the back if they have a chance. They're always playing 'gotcha.' They see the world in a frantic, revolutionary sense."
Succinct advice for basic political survival was offered by Veterans Affairs' Anthony McCann: "Trust the judgment of careerists regarding substantive issues. Delegatedo not get swamped in the minutia; let it go.
 
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Don't deal with too much yourself. Figure out where the secretary is coming from. Keep your relations close with the IG. This last helps when things go wrongand there's always something going wrong in an agency."
Those from the private sector clearly valued the opportunity to work in the public sector but, warned one, "It's a very protected environment. People [civil servants] can get comfortable with no driving force in government to keep them competitive, to bring out the best."
Selin recommended that persons not be appointed to high-level posts until they have had experience in the private sector. They "should plan on making their money in the private sector first and then going into public service a little later in life." He also felt they should work in government at the GS-15 level or lower before taking a political appointment to get a sense of how government operates. He noted a difference between the public and private sectors: "Government service is hard in the sense of having a wide impact. The private sector is more narrow. There, one can concentrate on maximizing a few things, focusing on a few things and doing them well. But in government, you have to satisfice, to balance many interests and needs."
Many PASs talked about the consensual nature of federal politics. One always needs to "keep one's eyes open" and be aware of the politics of the situation and the reaction of Congress. As Elliot Richardson noted,
Decisionmaking is the easiest thing you do, say one-seventh of the job. Then you have to get the support of the staff, OPM, OMB, the Hill, interest groups, the president, and the general public. All the players have to be at least considered and in some cases brought on board. The complexity of the governing process increases and grows faster than any of the trends that contribute to it.
The nature of democracy itself is largely responsible for the complexity within which political actors operate. Perhaps the final word of political advice belongs to Richardson.
The function of the political process is to make choices among competing claims. There are no simple answers or easy decision making and there is no objective way to decide among them. Any politician who doesn't waffle doesn't understand the problem. Politicians should have the imagination and intelligence and empathy to understand the jostling of competing claims.
 
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Personal Survival at the Policy Nexus
Many expressed the view that PAS service was a privilege and an honor: "It's a great experience to come in and serve the country." However, PASs have to learn to protect themselves and to build in successes along the way, if they are not to burn out in the process of serving their president and country. As one PAS noted, "The opportunity to feel you've done something is less than it is in academia where you can build up a program or develop a school. You have to create those opportunities" to do something.
As discussed in previous chapters, the nomination and confirmation process can be one of extended length, great complexity, and stressful uncertainty. Sometimes confirmation delay is the fault of the White House, sometimes the Senate, but rarely is it pleasant or easy.
Self-protection in the face of personal criticism loomed large in many PASs' comments. "Be preparedit's not a glory job, prepare yourself for criticism. Regardless of what you do, Congress will just criticize, not praise," said one.
Others spoke of the intensity of the work, particularly in hot-button agencies like Health and Human Services where PASs are likely to work eighty-hour weeks and receive calls at home at all hours of the day and night. The toll this takes on one's family was a point of consideration for more than a few. Stress, as discussed in chapter 8, is an ever-present problem for PASs. As the CIA's Studeman said, "Managing your health is a big issue around town. You have to develop stress management techniques or this town will run you over and kill you deader than a doornail. You have to avoid getting emotionally tied to it." Said another, "You have to keep stress under control or you don't do the job well, you can't be effective, and you end up cheating your family."
The social pressures of Washington also got to some. "Washington is a very demanding, expensive townthe in-crowd social expectations could easily dominate your entire life," said one PAS.
Trends in the Institution of the Presidential Appointment System and Its Appointees
While political prognostication is always a risky proposition, it seems to be the favorite pastime in the nation's capital. Some trends, issues, and questions relevant to the future of the institution of the presidential appointment system and its yield, the PASs, can be culled from the Bush PAS Survey and interviews: they are worth noting.
 
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Here to Stay But ''Maxed Out" on Numbers
It appears that the trend of having more appointees placed deeper in the agencies finally came to its end in the Bush administration. Although Clinton promised to trim the federal government by some 272,000 career positions (12 percent), it was for financial, not management or political theory reasons. But even if he had had the financial resources, it was unlikely that the Clinton administration would have adopted this Eisenhower-Nixon-Reagan administrative presidency strategy of superimposing political appointees over a dispirited bureaucracy.
A Rebirth of a Government of Strangers?
With Democrats taking back the White House after an absence of twelve years, there were some Carter people in the Clinton administration, but the aura of a "failed presidency" (however fair or unfair an assessment) still haunted them. Young newcomers (particularly those coming from Arkansas who had not had Washington experience) did not know the old hands or how the town worked. Strangers, they likely irritated the old hands and one another. A future study will have to address this question.
On the other hand, the phenomenon of government by interagency task force will continue to grow with the complexity of the nation's problems and the overlapping missions of the various federal agencies. The demands of this type of governing will likely mean that its political leaders from whatever source will not long remain strangers to one another.
A Setback in Political-Career Relations?
As noted, Democrats probably mistrusted careerists who loyally served three Republican administrations. The clear message from the Bush PASs (echoing the Reagan PASs) was that careerists could be trusted and politicians should not waste valuable time trying to circumvent or disempower them. Also, if what careerists report is true, the agencies themselves are eager to move on; they depend on party changes to rejuvenate themthe new political bosses have little to fear from their careerists. However, if history provides any model, that lesson will likely have to be learned anew by the incoming tenants of the White House.
Qualifications and Training Will Continue to Be Important
The need remains to push qualifications as a key criterion for appointees. Trainingeven on-the-job training and particularly in understanding and working the federal budget, agency management, and the basic politics of the administration and townwill often be critical to PASs' success.

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