Mr. Outside Opts for 'Ins'

Like some last-minute Christmas shopper scrambling to get it all done in time, Jimmy Carter managed to meet his deadline: he got his full Cabinet named by Dec. 25. The final announcements came last week in three televised presentations at Carter headquarters in Plains, and the biggest of the "surprises" so often forecast by the President-elect's aides was that there were so few surprises. With 18 top jobs filled, including all twelve Cabinet positions and the main economic and national-security slots, it was clear that the man who had campaigned as Mr. Outside wanted men (and women) around him who were politically in or near the center, fixers, doers and organizers--not ideologues.

The phrase that Carter used repeatedly in introducing his Cabinet choices was "tough, competent managers." That was a fair collective description of the appointees who are to join Carter on Sea Island, Ga., for three days this week.

Tough Infighting. The accent was on experience. Seven of Carter's 18 nominees held Cabinet or sub-Cabinet level jobs in previous Administrations. Three were announced earlier: Cyrus Vance as Secretary of State, Charles Schultze as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and W. Michael Blumenthal as Treasury Secretary. Four more veterans were tapped last week.

First Carter named as Defense Secretary Harold Brown, president of the California Institute of Technology, who headed weapons research at the Pentagon in the McNamara years. In his final session, after a quick trip to Chicago for the funeral of Mayor Richard Daley, Carter named three more old hands. To run Health, Education and Welfare, Carter recruited Joseph Califano, Lyndon Johnson's domestic policy chief. To head the energy agency that he hopes to expand into a Cabinet department, Carter chose his house Republican, James Schlesinger, whose resume is getting to be as lengthy as Elliot Richardson's. One baffling choice: he picked New York Attorney Theodore Sorensen to run the Central Intelligence Agency; though experienced around Washington as John F. Kennedy's chief aide and speechwriter, Sorensen seemed to have little obvious qualification for the job.

But Carter could claim proven experience among other nominees. Minnesota Congressman Bob Bergland, his prospective Agriculture Secretary, is a real farmer. Carter also managed, finally, to find women for his Cabinet: black Washington Attorney Patricia Harris, who will be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Economist Juanita Kreps, named to Commerce.

The final lineup was the result of tough infighting among competing interests, and fancy--even tricky--maneuvering on Carter's part. The most egregious example was his appointment as Attorney General: Griffin Bell, a former federal appeals-court judge. Black leaders were outraged at the choice (see box opposite page).

Bell is something of a crony of Carter's, and in that sense the appointment is not unprecedented; Carter recalled John F. Kennedy's appointment of his brother Robert, and joked that his own brother Billy was in line for the job as soon as he got his law degree. But Carter had seemed to promise more than a comfortable ally in such a crucial post.

There were other signs of expedience in Carter's Cabinet making. Harvard Economist John Dunlop was AFLCIO President George Meany's candidate for Labor Secretary, a job Dunlop had held in the Ford Administration. He seemed to have an inside track for the job under Carter, but was apparently shot down by blacks and feminists who bombarded Carter with complaints that Dunlop was soft on minority and women's rights. The post went instead to F. Ray Marshall, a labor economist who was perfectly acceptable to Meany--but not the nominee he had expected.

Said one Meany intimate: "Why the hell did Carter keep telling us he had an open mind? When [AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer] Lane Kirkland went down to Plains last week, it wasn't for tea and crumpets. Now we find it was all window dressing. To put it bluntly, we were misled."

Possibly to take the sting out of labor's disappointment, Carter told TIME during his interview last week that "I would like to use [Dunlop] on major negotiating assignments. He said he'd be glad to help." Carter's Labor nomination, however, was not the only Meany setback. The labor leader had pushed for Schlesinger for Defense and against Sorensen for the CIA.

Those who worried about Carter's populism were generally pleased with the team: centrist on economy and defense, more liberal on social issues. Many were disappointed. Said Colorado State Democratic Chairman Monte Pascoe: "I am surprised to see so many choices cycled through Washington. I expected him to reach out more for new people and new ideas."

A Pentagon general had another complaint. Carter, he said, has simply "dusted off a lot of guys from the J.F.K.-L.B.J. era and put them back in power, trying to pretend that they had flawless performance records. They didn't."

Stanford Political Scientist Seymour Martin Lipset argued that it was "probably naive" to have expected many fresh faces. Said he: "That is the problem with outsiders who take over. All of a sudden they realize, 'My God, we have to put together a Government.' "

Not Qualified. Adds TIME Correspondent Stanley Cloud: "It is ironic that Carter should have put such store in resumes, in records of past positions. His own resume hardly qualifies him for President; indeed, it might not even qualify him for a job in his own Cabinet. Had he been less methodical and more instinctive in his appointments, his Cabinet might have seemed a little less safe--and a lot more exciting."

On balance, despite liberal carping Carter has picked a clearly competent Cabinet, with some appointments smacking of cronyism (Bell, Budget Director-designate Bert Lance), others showing imagination and bringing in some fascinating personalities (Brown, Schlesinger, Blumenthal). As usual, much will depend on the kind of leadership the President provides, the tone he sets, the policies he establishes.

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