Nation: Eight for the Cabinet

As the economy nosedives, Reagan's men have their work cut out for them

It was not exactly a halcyon time for Cabinet making, as the Soviet shadow grew longer over Poland and the U.S. economy once again lurched out of control. But Washington can be a parochial town where people and power are concerned, and week after week the anticipation had been building. Résumés flowed into the drab transition headquarters. FBI agents conducted background checks. There was feverish speculation in the corridors of the bureaucracy, as well as in the daily accounts of newspapers and TV news broadcasts. But when the moment came for Ronald Reagan to announce his first eight selections for Cabinet-level jobs, it was an understated affair. The President-elect, true to his low-key posture since Election Day, stayed holed up in Blair House, the capital's elegant residence for VIP guests. It was left to transition Press Spokesman James Brady to introduce the nominees to the 350 reporters gathered in the Mayflower Hotel ballroom.

Brady read off eight names with rather less emotion than a railroad conductor calling out station stops, as a line of men, all in blue or gray suits, stepped before the TV cameras. For half an hour, they took turns answering questions or, more accurately, politely not answering them, explaining that they would have to become more familiar with their new jobs before they could say anything specific about their own views or the new Administration's policies. Said Secretary of Commerce-designate Malcolm Baldrige, in the only semblance of lively comment: "I haven't even found the front door to the Department of Commerce yet."

Still, the very lack of color—in the ceremony and in the group—said something important about the Administration that Reagan is putting together against a background of threatened economic and international crisis. Only one of the eight, Michigan Congressman David Stockman, stands out—for youth (he is 34) and for passionately held views. He is a self-described fanatic in his devotion to minimal Government and supply-side economics (which basically means stimulating the economy by cutting personal income taxes and prompting more business investment). As director of the Office of Management and Budget, he should put some ginger into Cabinet debates. In a memo to Reagan that became public just before his selection for OMB was announced, Stockman and a close friend, New York Congressman Jack Kemp, urged the President-elect to declare a "national economic emergency" immediately after Inauguration.

The other seven are moderate conservatives, most of whom are better known as skilled managers than as innovative thinkers. Five can be considered members of the Eastern Republican Establishment. They are Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker, who will be Secretary of Health and Human Services, and four businessmen: Baldrige; Treasury Secretary-designate Donald Regan; William Casey, who will head the CIA; and Transportation Secretary-designate Drew Lewis. Two longtime California friends of Reagan's fill out the group: Caspar Weinberger, chosen as Secretary of Defense, and William French Smith, Attorney General-designate. Even they are not typical Sunbelt hardliners; in fact, their selections reinforce a surprisingly strong Ivy League cast in Reagan's official family.