Reagan's Cabinet: Mixed Grades

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Raymond Donovan, 51, is one of the Cabinet's weakest players, even in the eyes of the White House. "No comment," said a presidential aide when asked about the Labor Secretary. Added a Hill staffer: "He is simply out of his league. He combines not much knowledge of the issues with not much skill in politics."

Donovan's reputation began to tarnish during his confirmation hearings, which raised some unanswered questions about the involvement of his former New Jersey construction company in illegal union payoffs. No charges were proved, but a New York Teamster official was indicted for extorting funds from the company. Donovan's performance on the job has not redeemed him. He has failed to build bridges to organized labor, though other pro-business Labor Secretaries before him have managed to do so. He attended an AFL-CIO meeting ten months ago, but since then, complains the federation's president, Lane Kirkland, "I've heard from him only through the Federal Register," the weekly list of changes in Government rules. Many of those changes, such as the cutbacks in Occupational Safety and Health Administration programs, and a weakening of affirmative-action requirements for federal contractors, have further angered labor.

Donovan has many supporters in the business community, which applauds his zeal for deregulation. Says John Tysse of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce: "He understands that his is a broader mandate than simply marching to the tune of the AFL-CIO." Nevertheless, in an Administration that suffers from poor relations with organized labor, much of the blame goes to Donovan, with a D.

Good Soldier Schweiker

As a Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, Richard Schweiker, 55, was a liberal spokesman for most of the Government's health programs. Thus, when he was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services, many social welfare advocates breathed a sigh of relief. They still sigh when his name is mentioned, but with disappointment. Reason: Schweiker's go-along attitude toward the elimination of many of his department's functions.

When the 1982 budget for HHS was slashed by more than $3 billion, Good Soldier Schweiker hardly raised a yelp. But he has not yet come forward with proposals for less expensive ways to deliver the social services he once fought for as a Senator, or to contain health-care costs through greater competition and coordination. Moreover, he has joined the fight against programs like family planning, which the Administration opposed primarily on ideological, rather than budgetary grounds.

Schweiker backed into a buzz saw when he and Stockman jointly proposed a plan to reform Social Security by reducing benefits. Regardless of the degree to which the plan had merit, and elements of it had a lot, it was met with bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill. Reagan had to disclaim it. For a man who served two terms in the Senate, Schweiker showed himself surprisingly inept in dealing with Congress. He earns a middling C, but only because he does not deserve blame for all of what has happened in his realm.

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