Reagan's Cabinet: Mixed Grades

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A few rate A's, but others are middling C's at best

Despite Ronald Reagan's intention to establish a true cabinet government, as he did when he was Governor of California, the need for central coordination of policy inevitably drew power from federal departments to the White House. Nevertheless, Reagan has tried to foster a sense of team play. In addition to attending frequent Cabinet meetings, most of the Secretaries belong to one or more of five "Cabinet councils" set up to coordinate issues that fall into broad areas. For example, the Secretary of Health and Human Services chairs a council on "human resources, "whose members include the Attorney General and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Labor, Education and Housing and Urban Development.

Some of the Secretaries have put their individual stamps on policy matters. Others have evidently failed to master the intricacies of their jobs. There are 17 members of the Cabinet, four of whom are, in a sense, ministers without portfolio: Counsellor Edwin Meese, U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Trade Representative Bill Brock and CIA Director William Casey. The following assessment of the men who have departmental responsibilities, listed in order of protocol, is based on the reporting of correspondents in TIME's Washington bureau.

Prickly Vicar

In his four-star drive to become what he called "the vicar of American foreign policy," Secretary of State Alexander Haig has endured a dizzying eleven-month roller-coaster ride. Yet after all his ups and downs, Haig, 57, seems to have achieved what he wanted. Foreign policy is now coordinated not by the emasculated National Security Council but by interagency groups chaired by the State Department.

Haig's aggressive style is alien to the laid-back Californians at the White House, who feel that the Secretary's well-publicized turf battles with colleagues were as avoidable as they were embarrassing. The volatile former NATO commander still has a tendency to erupt at slights, but he appears more secure than he did a few months ago, possibly because he enjoys more frequent access to the President.

Critics charge that Haig has proved better at administering policy than at conceptualizing the broader outlines of American goals; neither he nor his close aides are known as idea men. His comments often seem contradictory, and on such subjects as Soviet-sponsored terrorism his rhetoric has been excessive. Nonetheless, Haig has brought a realistic approach to the management of policy, often restraining the hard-line ideologues at the Pentagon. For example, he was able to overcome Defense Department objections to resuming talks with the Soviets on reducing nuclear weapons in Europe. (Once the talks were approved, however, the specific proposals were essentially devised by Pentagon planners.)