Here Comes Mr. Jordan

"I'll have to change my attitude to my work "

Gone was the easy, Tom and Huck familiarity. At least in public, William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan, 34, would never again be plain old Ham, not even to Press Secretary Jody Powell, the only other man in the White House who has served so long and so closely with Jimmy Carter. Explaining Carter's wishes last week, Powell announced: "The President told the White House staff they should no longer consider Mr. Jordan as their peer and they should consider his directives as the President's own."

Although the appointment of Jordan was greeted with widespread skepticism outside the White House, those closest to Carter welcomed the move. Said Congressional Liaison Chief Frank Moore: "It's great. We needed it. You can already tell the difference. Procedures are crisper."

Indeed, something was needed. The staff Carter transplanted to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from his Georgia-based presidential campaign was from the start young, inexperienced and fundamentally disorganized. Worse, its members came to Washington with chips on their shoulders about the city's entrenched political establishment. Jordan himself refused even to meet most of the Democratic congressional leadership. "I'm sure I've met him," Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd loftily remarked last week. "But I've never had a conversation with him."

The Georgians came with a determination to run the White House differently. They were all equals, with equal access to Carter himself, but without the authority to make serious policy decisions.

Just weeks ago, for example, a 40-page memorandum landed on Carter's desk detailing the problems involved in the Post Office's getting into the business of transmitting electronic data. Top aides did not think it was necessary for the President himself to study the arguments, but as one of them explains: "There was no way to shortstop it, no place for it to go except to the President." Carter himself was part of the problem. He enjoyed minutiae, from details of shale rock formations to the precise boundaries of West Bank settlements. Says another aide: "Carter ended up mediating everything."

Jordan will now have the power to make middle-level decisions in Carter's stead. From the Cabinet and federal agencies, Jordan explains, policy suggestions will come to both Domestic Affairs Adviser Stuart Eizenstat and Foreign Affairs Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. If either of these two fails to reach agreement with Cabinet members, Jordan will step in before the dispute reaches Carter. Says he: "I will not be the pre-eminent policy person ... I see my role as one of coordination, accountability and responsibility."

One of Jordan's first moves was to try to make peace with the congressional barons he has so studiously ignored. He made a pilgrimage to the office of House Speaker Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill, and was quickly paid back for an accumulation of insults that dated all the way back to Jordan's refusal to help O'Neill get good seats at Carter's Inauguration.

When Jordan last week asked O'Neill for some advice, the crusty Speaker, who has long called the new chief of staff "Hannibal Jerkin," scolded the White House aide about his failure to deal with Congress. Said the Speaker: "There should be close relations between the Congress and the man who has the President's ear. I've never understood why he wasn't at the leadership breakfasts." But by meeting's end O'Neill had turned avuncular, giving Jordan a list of names of Congressmen and key aides he should get to know. Concluded the Speaker: "Bygones are bygones."

Of still more concern are Jordan's personal characteristics and work habits. He has attracted a good deal of attention for a series of social faux pas, including an alleged dinner party remark about "always wanting to see the pyramids" while staring down the low-cut dress of the Egyptian ambassador's wife. When a woman accused him of making a pass in a Washington bar, then spitting a sticky mouthful of Amaretto and cream at her when she rebuffed him, the White House issued a 33-page denial of the incident.

At work, Jordan has trouble saying no to friends and has accumulated some misfits on his own staff. His attire until last year was defiantly casual, featuring open-necked shirts and ankle-high boots. He seemed to work harder on his tennis game than on most policy problems. Says one friend: "Hamilton has been lax because he's had no specific responsibility."

One factor may be that Jordan has been under a good deal of personal pressure. Soon after he went to Washington, his marriage of eight years began to dissolve. He is now divorced. Last year, his father died.

Jordan is capable of brilliant political work. He drew the blueprint that got Carter elected. He orchestrated the successful campaign to get the Panama Canal treaties ratified. He has prepared a detailed plan of attack for the SALT II ratification battle. His authority in the White House has steadily increased and with that authority have come changes both on the surface and below, hence his recent pin-striped suits and more conservative demeanor. Says one colleague: "He is very serious about things worth being serious about. Like the President, he will not get intellectually stampeded. He has the strength to wait."

Jordan did not particularly want to be chief of staff, but he vowed, "If I do it, it won't be done in a half-assed way." As he took command last week, he seemed determined to carry out that pledge. Said he: "I'll have to change in a number of ways. I'll have to change my approach and my attitude to my work. I know what I do well and what I don't do well. What I do well is, I plan. I am organized in my head. I am not a person who relishes or is good at detail." Recognizing his own weaknesses, Jordan began an immediate search for a tough executive officer. Leading candidate: Congressional Liaison Officer Leslie Francis, 36, who is credited with improving the White House congressional liaison operation. He will perhaps be a sort of Jordan's Jordan. Sums up Jordan: "I certainly don't think of myself as the solution to all our problems." qed

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