Thunderers on the Right

By WALTER ISAACSON

True Believers mil make noise and policy in sub-Cabinet posts

Lyn Nofziger, longtime Ronald Reagan loyalist and true-blue guardian of Reaganism, put the matter to his boss bluntly. Those who had toiled in the fields, the True Believers who had dreamed for more than a decade of a Reagan presidency, were being left out in. the cold. The Cabinet was dominated by pragmatists and retreads from past Republican Administrations, rather than the ideologically pure. The sub-Cabinet was showing dangerous signs of following suit. Something had to be done quickly, he warned, to mollify Reagan's hard-core following of right-wing ideologues.

Indeed, protests from the New Right had begun as soon as Reagan gave top Cabinet jobs to such mainstream Republicans as Alexander Haig and Caspar Weinberger. Then these men brought pragmatic moderates into the sub-Cabinet: Lawrence Eagleburger at the State Department and Frank Carlucci at Defense. Conservative Senators like Jesse Helms turned cantankerous, and the Conservative Digest publicly warned Reagan, "Your mandate for change is in danger of being subverted."

Nofziger, who is ensconced in Richard Nixon's old Executive Office Building hideaway as Reagan's assistant for political affairs, has apparently carried the day. The puckish former press secretary has been given the power of "political clearance" over all sub-Cabinet jobs and was ceded nearly total control over some 1,500 lower-level political appointments. Says a presidential aide: "At the staff meetings every day, Nofziger says: "We've got to clean out the Democrats and get our own people taken care of."

Partly as a result of Nofziger's involvement, and partly as compensation to offended conservatives, the pendulum of political appointments has swung decisively to the right. Exults placated Conservative Digest Publisher Richard Viguerie: "Until now, it seemed that if you were a longtime Reagan supporter you were persona non grata at the White House. It's hard to have Reaganism without Reaganites." But others, including some in the Administration, are concerned that things may be going too far. Says one West Wing aide: "Good, solid Republican types are getting screwed."

A few of the recently appointed sub-Cabinet officers will be on the cutting edge of the change Reagan has promised for the Federal Government. Their fervent beliefs are a radical departure from the policies of past Administrations, Democratic or Republican. Says one moderate White House aide: "The revolution is happening and nobody is noticing." Soon, however, people will undoubtedly take notice, because these new appointees will be at the center of some of the most heated controversies in the Administration. Among the newly installed Reaganites:

Ernest Lefever. Though he calls himself a Harry Truman Democrat, the new head of the State Department's Office of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs represents a clear reversal of the pursuit of international human rights by past Democratic -- and Republican -- Administrations. In his writings, he has attacked Gerald Ford and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for "arrogance, illusion and capriciousness" in trying to promote majority rule in Rhodesia, and questioned their "undue alarm" over nuclear proliferation. In 1978, as head of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center, he caught Reagan's eye with a paper titled "The Trivialization of Human Rights." In it Lefever rejected the basic premise of the division he now heads: "There should be a profound moral constraint on efforts designed to alter domestic practices, institutions and policies within other states." He aroused a particularly bitter controversy by defending sales of powdered infant feeding formulas in underdeveloped nations--a trade that critics say produces alarming rates of malnutrition and infant death--while at the same time Lefever's center received funding from Nestle, principal manufacturer of the formulas.

Lefever, 61, says that he is not opposed to the human rights policy, but charges that the Carter Administration selectively applied it to American allies while ignoring abuses in Communist nations. Says he: "We will be upgrading the human rights policy. We are going to be more effective because we do not believe in selective application." He also stresses that the most effective way to "nudge" other countries is through quiet diplomacy, not public preaching.

Richard Pipes. A Harvard professor of Russian history, the National Security Council's new Soviet expert believes that tsarist imperialism of the 19th century has translated into the Soviet expansionism of today. Pipes, 57, who came to the U.S. from his native Poland as a teenager, is a critic of Kissinger's policy of detente, which he said represented a "perilous extreme [of] complete relaxation." Pipes headed "Team B," an outside task force appointed by then CIA Director George Bush to assess Soviet military strength.

Pipes advocates "nuclear superiority" for the U.S., arguing that the Soviet Union would be prepared to fight and win a nuclear war. Says he: "Nuclear superiority means convincing your opponent you are willing to use this force."

Fred Ikle. The new Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, third-ranking member of the Pentagon hierarchy, was an adviser to Reagan during the campaign. As head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Ford, Ikle, 56, fought hard to torpedo the SALT I agreement. While Kissinger was in Moscow putting the final touches on the agreement, Ikle was at the White House arguing against the treaty. Caspar Weinberger wanted to appoint another SALT opponent, Paul Nitze, to the job, but Senator Helms and other conservatives argued that he had not been an active Reagan supporter. In a FORTUNE article published two years ago, Ikle had warned: "If the U.S. is not already militarily inferior [to the Soviet Union], it soon will be."

Paul Craig Roberts. A longtime and fervent supply-side economic theorist, the new Assistant Treasury Secretary for Economic Policy may be more rigidly doctrinaire than is his boss, Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. Roberts, 41, is a former editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies, one of the conservative think tanks. A onetime assistant to Congressman Jack Kemp of New York, he helped draft the Kemp-Roth tax-cutting bill now at the heart of the Reagan tax proposals. Roberts charged last year that "Government has been relying on the growth of its budget to provide employment rather than on the growth of private economy." And he is no fan of moderate Republicanism. He warned the incoming Reagan team: "If the new Administration returns to the policies of the Nixon-Ford years, it will be showing the world what it has seen before."

John Crowell. Reagan's choice to oversee the U.S. Forest Service--and 200 million acres of federal land--has fought that agency as general counsel for the Louisiana-Pacific Corp., a timber company. Reagan has picked other regulatory heads from the ranks of regulees--former Piper Aviation Chairman J. Lynn Helms to head the Federal Aviation Administration, E.F. Hutton Brokerage Executive John S.R. Shad to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, and antienvironmental Lawyer James Watt to be Interior Secretary. The appointment of Crowell, 63, is noteworthy because of his fervent opposition to federal timber management policies. Says Brant Calkin of the Sierra Club in Santa Fe: "This may be like asking Dracula to guard the blood bank."

Anne Gorsuch. Reagan's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency has often criticized the agency. She was supported by business groups and by fellow Coloradans James Watt and conservative Brewer Joseph Coors. As a state legislator, Gorsuch opposed a bill to control toxic wastes as well as rules for a Colorado auto emissions law.

Robert Burford. Another Colorado resident and former speaker of the state house of representatives, Burford was a backer of the "Sagebrush Rebellion," which seeks to turn federally owned land back to the states. He has been chosen to head the Bureau of Land Management. Burford, 58, has a permit to graze livestock on more than 33,000 acres in Colorado, which he says he will try to turn over to his three sons if he is confirmed.

The Rev. Bob Billings. The former executive director of the Moral Majority, Billings, 54, is scheduled for appointment to a newly created sub-Cabinet post in the Education Department that will probably involve nonpublic schools. Billings, a Baptist, has been an outspoken opponent of sex education, abortion and homosexual rights, and a proponent of school prayer. He was once a public school principal, and says he was offended by "red tape, and a philosophy that was coming down from above--humanism." So he took off across the country with his wife and a trailer to help local communities set up Christian schools.

Dr. C. Everett Koop. The newly appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services is in line for Surgeon General. Koop made his name in the early 1970s with his operations to separate Siamese twins, but has since become known as an evangelical Christian who crusades against abortion. Over the past two years, Koop, 64, has toured the country with a 17-hour multimedia presentation called "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" It denounces abortion, the loss of family values, euthanasia and infanticide. Says he: "The first domino to fall was abortion on demand, and it has split the country as has no other issue since the practice of slavery."

Marjory Mecklenburg. President of the antiabortion American Citizens Concerned for Life, Mecklenburg is the prime candidate to be director of the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. She says that her organization believes contraceptives should not be "the first line of defense" against teen pregnancies. Instead, she insists, young people should be educated to "postpone sexual involvement." Mecklenburg adds, however, that she sees "little to be gained by withholding contraception from sexually active adolescents."

Thomas Pauken. The nominee to head ACTION, the agency that oversees VISTA and the Peace Corps, Pauken, 37, is a Dallas lawyer described as being as far to the political right as Carter's director, Sam Brown, was to the left. Says Pauken: "Some liberals might not like me." What is most significant is that Pauken is a former Army intelligence officer. The Peace Corps has sometimes been suspected by Third World nations of being a front for U.S. intelligence agencies. So sensitive is the Corps that it turns down volunteers who have previously been associated with such agencies. Worries one Peace Corps insider: "It could put the lives of volunteers in jeopardy in some countries."

Like Sherlock Holmes' deduction from the dog that did not bark in the night, an Administration is sometimes marked by an appointment that was not made. One example last week was that of current Federal Trade Commissioner

Patricia Bailey, 43, one of two Republicans on the five-member panel. Reagan had signed the papers designating her to be the new commission chairman, but had not yet announced the appointment. Then a story appeared in the Washington Star quoting her as opposing Budget Director David Stockman's plan to phase out the FTC's role in enforcing antitrust laws, a function it has had for 67 years. Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese promptly called the panel's other Republican, David Clanton, 36, and told him that he would be made chairman instead--even though Clanton said he agrees with Bailey's speech. Bailey thinks she was un-appointed because of her support for the Equal Rights Amendment. Says she: "They obviously have tremendous problems putting a woman in any position of responsibility." At Reagan's press conference last week, he was asked if Bailey's nonappointment was "a signal to other Republicans that if they don't conform that off will go their heads?" Reagan paused, sighed and then asked back: "How can you say that about a sweet fellow like me?" He then explained that Bailey was only one of the people under consideration for that particular job.

Hundreds more middle-level positions in the new Administration remain to be filled. As the persistent Nofziger supervises the selection of appointees, any lingering fears among conservatives about a lack of true Reaganites in influential positions should fade. Of course, the need to face stubborn realities and make tough practical decisions can dilute the actions of even the most fervent ideologues. But at the very least, conservatives can no longer claim that they have been cheated out of their long-awaited chance to participate in setting federal policy in the next four years.

--By Walter Isaacson.

Reported by Douglas Brew/Washington

With reporting by Douglas Brew / Washington

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