Some Snags in the Stretch

Some Snags in the Stretch

"This is a very slow and detailed and thorough and deliberative process," said Jimmy Carter of his Cabinet making. Indeed it was. Despite the President-elect's public serenity, there were some serious snags -most notably in persuading the right people to serve, especially women and blacks.

During three press conferences last week, Carter added six names, to bring his list of major appointees to eight (the first two being Cyrus Vance as Secretary of State and Bert Lance as director of the Office of Management and Budget). The new selections gave his emerging team a look of intelligence, efficiency and pragmatism.

Grossly Exaggerated. Critics lost no time in noting that Carter's initial appointees were all white, Establishment-connected males and that the first three Cabinet choices represented Yale (Vance), Princeton (Michael Blumenthal, Secretary of the Treasury) and Harvard (Brock Adams, Secretary of Transportation). The President-elect moved to remedy this by naming Atlanta Congressman Andrew Young his Ambassador to the United Nations. The first prominent black to throw his weighty influence behind the Carter candidacy, Young candidly admitted that his friends had "been cussing me out and crying" over his decision to accept the post -one that does nothing to help the condition of U.S. blacks. But his concern over linking U.S. interests with those of the emerging Third World nations -and Carter's persuasiveness -overcame Young's strong desire to remain in Congress.

Barring hitches. Carter was expected to name his Attorney General early this week: former Fifth Circuit Appeals Court Judge Griffin Bell, now a law partner of Carter Adviser Charles Kirbo. Two other appointments could come early in the week but are less certain: John T. Dunlop as Labor Secretary, a post he held under President Ford, and Minnesota Congressman Bob Bergland as Agriculture Secretary.

Even with eleven spots nailed down, that would still leave six high positions open: the Secretaries of Defense, HEW, HUD and Commerce, and the heads of the FBI and CIA. Carter is also thinking of creating a new Cabinet-level energy department. One possibility to head it: former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, a firm advocate of strong energy conservation measures. Schlesinger, who met with the President-elect in Plains, Ga., at week's end, is known to believe that the new energy "czar" ought to sit on the National Security Council.

Carter contended that reports about pressure on him to select one candidate or another have been "grossly exaggerated." Nonetheless, such pressure persisted, for example, in the debate over whether he should choose Caltech President Harold Brown or Schlesinger for the Pentagon (see box).

Women's groups also continued to bombard him with complaints against Dunlop, claiming that he had been insensitive to improving equal employment rights when he was Ford's Labor Secretary. They were quickly joined by Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Congress Watch, the congressional Black Caucus and other groups. But Carter was caught in a crossfire from most of organized labor, which wanted Dunlop. At one point, Carter aides asked AFL-CIO officials to suggest alternatives to Dunlop who would be acceptable to Labor Boss

George Meany. Back came the word: "His first, second, third and fourth choices are Dunlop."

This put Carter under increased pressure to find some women for his Cabinet -which seemed to be extraordinarily hard to do. He had one selected for the Commerce Department: Jane Cahill Pfeiffer, a former IBM vice president. But at the last moment. Pfeiffer told Carter's aides that "personal reasons" precluded her acceptance. One possible woman appointee: Patricia Roberts Harris, a Washington attorney, who could be named Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Two other women were interviewed by Carter for possible Cabinet posts: Joan Manley. Time Inc. vice president and publisher of TIME-LIFE Books, who might be under consideration for Commerce; and Duke University Economist Juanita Kreps, a possibility for HEW or HUD.

Hung Up. Barbara Jordan, the eloquent Texas Congress woman who could help satisfy Carter's pledges to both women and blacks by joining the Cabinet, was proving difficult to place. She announced that she wanted a job "consistent with my background" and seemed to have Attorney General in mind. Her interview with Carter last week was described as having gone poorly. Said one Jordan associate: "He did not feel comfortable with her." Although the job was not specifically offered, she ruled out consideration of the U.N. position, and her friends advised her to avoid HEW as being what one called "a bureaucratic snake pit." Some Carter advisers were afraid that if she were given Justice, she might leave as early as 1978 to run for the Senate from Texas. Others questioned whether she had the management ability to run the Justice Department. Despite Young's appointment, blacks were demanding wider representation. As if to prove that he was doing his best to satisfy them, Carter took the unusual step of publicly naming three blacks who had taken themselves out of consideration for various reasons: Vernon Jordan, National Urban League executive director, who said he was too "committed to the black people and the Urban League" to consider a job; Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who said he was "flattered" but was determined to run for reelection; and Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, who said he thought he could be more useful trying to solve Detroit's problems than in taking the HUD position.

Carter seemed untroubled. But he did concede that he was "hung up" on one or two positions and did not expect to meet his Christmas deadline for filling the top jobs.

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