Hitmen With Bull’s-E On Their Shoe Tops

During the Reagan years, dispirited conservatives could be seen sulking around Washington with little buttons in their lapels saying “Let Reagan Be Reagan.”

The buttons were aimed not at then-House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Congress but at administration Republicans thought to be undermining the Reagan Revolution.

The problem, well understood back then, was that the president didn’t have enough “true believers” in his own administration to get the job done.

Unfortunately, some Republicans have an extraordinarily short institutional memory. In a move that can only be called dumb (okay, “shortsighted” if you want to be kind), a move is afoot in the Republican-controlled Congress to give the next conservative president a novel way to deal with the shortage of true believers: reduce their numbers even further and replace them with career federal employees.

They would do this with an amendment to the appropriations bill that provides funds for the government work force. The amendment would cut out funds for 800 of the currently authorized 2,800 executive branch political positions. Touted as a bipartisan “good government reform,” the proposal was approved by the Senate on Aug. 5 without debate.

Many Republicans who support it think the amendment will wound President Clinton. And it might. That’s why he should veto it, without hesitation, if it reaches his desk. And thoughtful Republicans should cheer.

Republicans are forgetting that Bill Clinton will not be in the White House forever. Someday, one of their own will be there, and he will need all the help he can get to put his imprint on the government. Otherwise, he’ll be like a conductor trying to lead Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as the orchestra plays punk rock.

I suppose it’s understandable that a Congress dominated for the first time in four decades by Republicans would attempt to reduce the number of Democratic political appointees. But it’s unprincipled, and just because it’s understandable that doesn’t mean it’s sensible.

The proposed elimination of 800 political jobs, while undermining the presidential power of appointment, would create hardly a ripple in the sea of 2.1 million career employees. But it would diminish the ability of any future president to rein in the federal bureaucracy.

The fact is that even if the funds for the political jobs are eliminated, the positions will still be there, and they will be filled by Washington careerists whose jobs, professional advancement, and career paths are enhanced when government grows. The White House agenda wouldn’t necessarily be impeded, not even in the short term. But a future conservative president would certainly wonder what got into these Republicans.

The Republicans in Congress are forgetting the vital role of political appointees that was so well-expressed in the Reagan administration maxim that “people are policy.” Simply put, this means: The people who get the jobs are the people who make the policies. If they don’t share the president’s views, they aren’t likely to implement his program.

No president can fulfill the voters’ mandate alone, or with only a handful of trusted staffers in the White House. That’s why a president needs people who are accountable to him, running the show throughout the government, not just in the White House.

I am not advocating that we go back to the “spoils system” of Andrew Jackson’s day, when the party that won the elections rewarded thousands of political hacks with government jobs whether they were qualified for the positions or not.

Massive turnover in the government work force every four or eight years and corruption in public administration routinely resulted. It finally led to the creation of a career civil service that is supposed to be “beyond politics.” It’s not, of course - but a balance was struck, with political appointees having responsibility for developing policy and careerists having responsibility for implementing it.

This proposal, however, pushes the Republicans toward the other extreme, where government would get insulated from the voters’ desire for healthy change because career employees would hold all the senior positions except for a few White House and Cabinet slots.

The federal government needs balance between political appointees accountable to the president and career employees who ensure administrative continuity and institutional memory. Republicans shouldn’t let their opposition to the Clinton administration’s policies blind them to the importance of maintaining this balance.

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