Retreating on Defense

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By last week Dole knew he had to put a full budget resolution to a vote quickly; ballots on individual provisions would shred the package beyond recognition. He put the deal together with the help of White House Lobbyist Max Friedersdorf and Budget Director David Stockman, who spent nearly all his time during the final week in Dole's three-room office suite. They put through a series of calls to Reagan's traveling party in Lisbon--White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan took most of them--informing the President's aides what was happening.

Weinberger's role in the end-game maneuvering seems to have been peripheral. The Secretary of Defense visited Dole's office at midweek to make a final, unavailing plea for a 3% military budget increase in excess of inflation. His final call or calls to Lisbon got no different result, and he left Washington for his summer home in Northeast Harbor, Me., before the Senate vote. White ) House aides say he did not speak directly with the President as the decision was being made. Weinberger took strong exception to those suggestions. "I had no problem reaching him," he said. "One way or another, we are always able to talk."

By Wednesday afternoon Stockman transmitted the numbers to Lisbon by electronic facsimile, and Dole, Domenici and Friedersdorf placed a this-or- nothing conference call to Regan. The chief of staff took the news to Reagan as he was dressing for dinner with the President of Portugal. "Is this the best deal we can get?" asked Reagan. His chief of staff replied that it was. Regan phoned Dole Thursday morning with the President's acceptance, and the last roundup of votes began. Four Republicans who could not accept the civilian spending reductions voted against the budget resolution. Dole won over only one Democrat, Edward Zorinsky of Nebraska. But his vote and Bush's proved decisive.

White House aides insisted that Reagan had known all along he would have to give on military spending and had been following his often repeated theory of effective bargaining: ask for more than you can get and offer not even the slightest hint of concession until absolutely sure you have obtained the maximum. As the President himself put it to reporters in Lisbon, "I've always kind of believed in leaving a cushion there for dealing." Reagan's advisers observed, too, that the civilian spending cuts in the budget resolution further Reagan's objective of reducing the size and power of the Federal Government, an overriding goal. While all that is true, the definition of what constitutes the best deal that Reagan can get has clearly changed.

FOOTNOTE: *The pollster interviewed 1,000 registered voters between April 30 and May 2. The potential sampling error is plus or minus 3%. When compared with the results of previous polls, the potential sampling error is plus or minus 4.5%.

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