The Right Man at the Right Time

By Jacob V. Lamar Jr

The circumstances were similar: the White House was embroiled in scandal and a presidency tottered on the brink of disaster. At the Senate Watergate Committee hearings during the summer of 1973, an earnest Republican lawmaker from Tennessee became famous when he framed the essential question concerning Richard Nixon: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" The answer led to Nixon's downfall.

Nearly 14 years later, another White House crisis is thrusting Howard Baker back into the headlines. This time, however, he may be the best hope to rescue a floundering President. Last Friday he accepted Ronald Reagan's offer to become White House chief of staff and injected a note of optimism into an otherwise dark week. "I expect that there will be good things out of the last two years of the Reagan Administration," said Baker. "And I intend to help him."

Baker's appointment was the most encouraging sign in months that Reagan is still capable of saving his Administration from the Iranscam quagmire. The retired Senate majority leader was hailed as a principled pragmatist who is also a respected public figure. "It was a first-rate appointment that provides the White House with instant credibility," said Kenneth Duberstein, a prominent lobbyist and Reagan's former legislative liaison. As congressional hearings on the Iran-contra affair get under way this spring, the Administration might also benefit from the respect Baker commands among his former colleagues on Capitol Hill. Said Senator Alan Dixon, an Illinois Democrat: "We know he's fair, we know he's honest, and we know he's decent." Robert Dole, who succeeded Baker as Senate G.O.P. leader in 1985, called his friend "the right man at the right time at this critical period for the White House."

The new chief of staff and his predecessor are about as different as two people can be. While Donald Regan is forceful and autocratic, Baker is easygoing and self-effacing. Regan had no feel for politics and disdained the often subtle maneuvering that makes for a constructive relationship between the White House and the Hill. Baker is the consummate insider. In three terms as a U.S. Senator from 1967 to 1985, he mastered the art of political compromise and cajolery. In all likelihood he will actively seek help outside the White House as he attempts to get the presidency back on track.

While Baker's selection was widely popular, his name had not even been on the President's short list of possible successors to Regan. It did not come up until Thursday afternoon, when the President met with his close friend Paul Laxalt, former Senator from Nevada. Laxalt himself had been considered, but he is still mulling a run for the presidency in 1988, and told Reagan he was not available; instead he recommended Baker. Two other key advisers, Attorney General Edwin Meese and Pollster Richard Wirthlin, agreed with the suggestion. Reagan phoned Baker that afternoon. Less than 24 hours later, Baker arrived at the White House. "We sneaked him in," chortled a presidential aide. "Not a $ soul knew." After conferring with both the President and the First Lady, Baker got the job.

Reagan and Baker are not ideological twins. Indeed, Baker is a political moderate who is likely to come under attack from conservative hard-liners, particularly for his call for a solid arms-control agreement with the Soviets. In fact, Baker was Nixon's personal favorite among Republican contenders for the '88 race; the former President felt Baker would restore "hardheaded detente" to U.S.-Soviet relations. As Senate minority leader in 1978, Baker earned the enmity of the right, including Ronald Reagan, for supporting the treaties ceding U.S. control over the Panama Canal. As majority leader during Reagan's first term, Baker labeled the President's supply-side economic proposals "a riverboat gamble" and was lukewarm toward proposals to ban abortion and require prayer in schools. Nevertheless, he loyally proclaimed himself the President's "spear carrier" in the Senate and helped push through his sweeping tax cuts. "My approach with the President is very straightforward and direct," he said. "We communicate easily."

As fate would have it, Baker, 61, agreed to go to the White House just as he was preparing to announce his candidacy for next year's presidential race. Baker, who launched a halfhearted presidential campaign in 1980, did not seek re-election to the Senate in 1984 so he could mount a more serious run for the presidency. Before he received the phone call from Reagan, Baker said, "I had pretty much made up my mind to run."

Why did he take the job? For Baker it was a call to duty. The President had offered him "the most sensitive position in his personal entourage." Given the chance to help put Reagan's troubled affairs in order, Baker said, "I didn't see how I could turn that down." Although accepting the appointment means he must give up the race for President, it puts Howard Baker in the White Houseafter all.

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett and Hays Gorey/Washington