American Notes the Cabinet

Ronald Reagan hates firing people. So instead of forthrightly dismissing his Secretary of Health and Human Services, he offered Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy Heckler a "promotion" to Ambassador to Ireland. Her first reaction was to call the job "a nice one--for someone else." Only after a 50-minute meeting with the President did she accept. Reagan then stood beside a grim Heckler at a press conference to denounce the "malicious gossip" that he had dumped her.

In truth, the President likes the former Massachusetts Congresswoman who has run the monstrous HHS (current budget: $316 billion) since 1983. His hand was forced by Chief of Staff Donald Regan, who detested Heckler's idiosyncratic management style. He and others complained about her lateness at Cabinet meetings, lack of preparation and indecisiveness. The Secretary's defenders praised her successes, like reducing Medicare cost inflation, and her efforts to protect the poor and elderly against budget cutters. Heckler will take up residence in Dublin early next year. Her departure leaves Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole as the lone woman Cabinet member.