There He Goes Again

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Watt's latest blunder may cost him his job

Most political figures try to avoid controversy. Some have controversy thrust upon them. But Interior Secretary James G. Watt does things differently. He thrusts himself upon controversy with the fervor of an ancient Roman hurling himself on his own sword.

The zealous Westerner impaled himself again last week, in a way that drew angry stirrings from Congress and renewed pressure for Watt's resignation. The occasion was a breakfast meeting of some 200 U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Watt was talking about a five-member commission that he had appointed at congressional behest to review Interior's much debated program of coal leasing on public lands, which has been called a multimillion-dollar giveaway at taxpayers' expense. Watt may have meant to extol his choice of commissioners, but what came out was something else. The panel, he said, had "every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." And, the Secretary added, "we have talent."

Some of the lobbyists laughed aloud, but many greeted the remark with stony silence. Afterward, Panel Member Donald C. Alexander, a former Internal Revenue Service commissioner, called Watt's remark "inappropriate and irrelevant. Since I can't fit into the category dealing with religion, and I'm not black and not a woman, that leaves only one group, and I don't feel I should be left one group, and I don't feel I should be left out. I think the Secretary might have thought I'm mentally handicapped."

Commission Member Richard L. Gordon, a professor at Pennsylvania State University who is Jewish and has a paralyzed right arm, said he was "disturbed" by Watt's remarks. Panelist Julia Walsh, a Washington investment counselor, said she resented the implication "that I am the token woman." David Linowes, a Jew and a professor of economics at the University of Illinois, and Andrew Brimmer, a black and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, called Watt's remarks "unfortunate."

Watt was soon issuing apologies all around, including a fairly abject one to President Reagan. "I have made a mistake, Mr. President," Watt wrote, "and I ask the forgiveness of those on the commission as well as you." Watt said his remarks were "extraordinarily unfair" to Reagan, whose policies "are designed to lift the scourge of discrimination from our midst." That may have been Watt's belated recognition that he had not helped the White House in its current campaign to curry favor among women and minorities.