Man for the Mid-Point

If some of the sharp ideological edge has receded from Ronald Reagan's political rhetoric at midterm and a new realism shows in his policies, one Washington insider may be more responsible than any other. He is James Baker, the President's calm, soft-spoken chief of staff, who helped Gerald Ford in 1976 and George Bush in 1980 oppose Reagan for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. The former Texas lawyer has become the President's most influential White House crisis manager. Says a fellow presidential assistant about Baker: "He is the guy who is now driving the policy in this Administration. The President has become very dependent on him."

Not always. In the inaugural troika of aides--Baker, Ed Meese and Michael Deaver--Reagan seemed to listen to Meese most carefully on policy matters and to Deaver for political and personal advice. Baker mainly ran the shop and deferred to Reagan's two veteran associates. The troika has since become a quartet with the addition a year ago of William Clark as National Security Adviser, who has the dominant voice on foreign policy. But on such crucial domestic issues as the budget and Social Security, Baker has emerged with his hands on the steering wheel, deftly maneuvering Reagan away from any rigid course.

Baker's pragmatism was not always welcome. He had tried to persuade Reagan in 1981 to accept cuts in his record buildup of military spending and to increase taxes in order to avoid horrendous budget deficits. But he pushed too hard and too publicly, and was rebuffed. Stung, Baker patiently coaxed presidential aides to come around to his view. When they did, they presented a consensus that Reagan could scarcely ignore. "The President has discovered that Baker has been right in the long run," contends one aide.

Baker led the White House team as the blue-ribbon commission on Social Security struggled to reach a compromise before its charter ran out. He argued inside the White House that failure to preserve the solvency of the Social Security system "not only had the potential of destroying this Administration, but the entire party." Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, a member of the commission, praised Baker as "a superb staff man." Says an aide to Republican Senate leaders admiringly: "Baker is a master poker player. He never shows his cards--and he wins."

The transplanted Texan's single-minded focus on the politics of problems is both a strength and a weakness. Baker, 52, readily concedes that he is not expert on most domestic programs and policy issues and relies heavily on his top aide, Richard Darman, for help on such matters. He also relies on the White House's congressional lobbyist, Kenneth Duberstein, to handle the details of legislative strategy.

Once a Democrat--he became a Republican in 1970--Baker has long been anathema to the far right. Often conservatives have tried to persuade Reagan to drop Baker. "Jim is a reasonable person who sits down with the opposition and works things out," complains Richard Viguerie, the right's direct-mail expert, who considers such reasonableness a weakness. In Viguerie's view, Baker "doesn't understand confrontation politics."

The activists of the right have given up fighting Baker and instead are now criticizing Ronald Reagan directly. "The leftward drift has turned into a stampede," says Viguerie about the President and his policies. Baker is unconcerned about the flak from the right. He comments: "I'm feeling pretty good right now." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.