Back in the Saddle Again

By Evan Thomas

Day after day, network crews restlessly peer down from their perch in the Santa Ynez Mountains, looking for photo opportunities at the adobe ranch buildings three miles distant that serve as Ronald Reagan's Western White House. But thick swirls of morning fog and shimmering waves of afternoon heat obscure their camera view, and the subject stays half hidden in the shade.

On doctors' orders, Reagan restricted his exercise to leisurely strolls with Wife Nancy. Then last Saturday the President obliged the network crews by appearing on horseback with Nancy and five others. Wearing jodhpurs, plaid shirt and a baseball-style hat, Reagan rode for 30 minutes. His mount was perfectly named for the occasion: Elusive Hobby.

Reagan has been following a go-slow regimen so that his body's "cement" can harden properly after major surgery last July for a cancerous polyp in his bowel. The former lifeguard, once cheerily vain about his lifelong "coat of tan," has given up his morning sunbaths and wears a broad-brimmed straw hat to protect his face. These are also doctors' orders, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the skin cancer that was scraped from his nose last month.

Reagan, who on earlier summer retreats to his beloved Rancho del Cielo chopped wood and bagged rattlesnakes with photogenic robustness, clearly had been itching to get back in the saddle again. Says one aide: "If the President had his way, he would have ridden a horse from Point Mugu (the Naval air station some 60 miles away, where Air Force One lands) to the ranch." Reagan at least had plenty of time to read the stacks of briefing papers National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane keeps feeding him in preparation for the November summit in Geneva. The papers range from an analysis of the Russian psyche to a synopsis of superpower relations over the past 15 years. Reagan also found time to indulge his taste for Louis L'Amour westerns.

The First Lady has always been a good sport about the rustic pleasures of Rancho del Cielo, but she has been unable to conceal her preference for palling about with old chums like Socialite Betsy Bloomingdale in more citified surroundings. Last week Nancy got a chance to sample the glitzy social whirl of Beverly Hills when the Reagans came down off the mountain for a three-day sojourn in lotus land. They hobnobbed at dinner parties with old Hollywood cronies like Jimmy Stewart, and ate chicken with three of their children (Maureen was in Sacramento) in a $3,000a-night presidential suite at the Century Plaza Hotel. The First Couple then returned to the 688-acre ranch for another lazy week. By the time the Reagans climb aboard Air Force One for the flight back to Washington this weekend, they will have spent 200 days --more than half a year--at the ranch since Reagan took office in 1981.

For Reagan's aides, camped out in Santa Barbara, some 30 miles down the mountain from the ranch, it was time to take marching orders from Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who has emerged as the undisputed boss in a once loose hierarchy of advisers. White House staffers have been noticeably less leaky this summer as they dine on the expense accounts of the news-hungry White House press corps. Only McFarlane has managed to retain some autonomy, by virtue of his foreign policy expertise and willingness to speak out.

At a publicly staged strategy session, Regan's staff tried to make a few headlines with some brave talk of a fall offensive. Come September, they declared, the President will barnstorm across the country rousing grass-roots support for his taxreform package; back at the White House, he will fairly itch to veto budget-busting appropriations bills.

Congress, which skulked out of town at the end of July in a sullen mood after taking a feeble poke at deficit reduction, may have other plans. Pressure is building on Capitol Hill to take a tougher stance against South Africa's policy of apartheid, as well as to fight off foreign trade competition with protectionist legislation. Already, some 200 bills calling for higher tariffs or import quotas are sitting in the congressional hopper. In mid-September comes the annual sideshow of raising the federal debt ceiling, now set by law at $1.82 trillion. Congressional conservatives are sure to make a noisy scene before approving the increase.

When the Congressmen get finished wringing their hands over the burgeoning federal debt, they will return to spending more money, voting on 13 appropriations bills. A prime candidate for a presidential veto is the farm bill, which will swell as this summer's bumper crops force ever larger price supports.

Reagan has actually wielded his veto pen less freely than his predecessors (only four times in his first term, in contrast to Jerry Ford's 66 vetoes in just 30 months). But the changing of the White House guard augurs a more hard-line stance. Former Budget Director David Stockman "was always the type who wanted to deal, and (former Chief of Staff James) Baker let him," scoffs a senior official. The new regime will not be so accom- modating. "Every poll will tell you that the American people want federal spending curbed," says Regan. "That's what we'll be trying to do working with Congress this fall."

Confrontation is a risky strategy. If Reagan is too veto-happy, he stands to lose the congressional support he needs for tax reform. Indeed, given all the distractions already preoccupying Congressmen, it is hard to see how they will have time to take on highly controversial tax reform.

Nonetheless, Reagan appears undaunted. At a $1,000-a-plate G.O.P. fund raiser in Los Angeles last week, the President reassured the faithful that the Reagan Revolution was still on track. Speaking from a podium adorned with old show- biz buddies like Roy Rogers, Fred MacMurray and Charlton Heston, Reagan gibed at those "who think our second term is going to be nothing more than a holding action. Well," he grinned, "to borrow a phrase from the '84 campaign, 'You ain't seen nothin' yet!' " Although still a few pounds thinner than in his presurgery days, the President seemed in good voice and high spirits, eager to seize the reins of Government, along with those of his horse.

With reporting by Barrett Seaman/Santa Barbara