The Man for the Job?

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All signs point to Bob Martinez as the White House choice to succeed William Bennett as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Two things make Martinez a natural for the job. One is his reputation as a hard-line antidrug warrior during his single term as Governor of Florida; the other is his connections at the White House.

Those links were dramatically evident during Martinez's losing bid for re- election against former Senator Lawton Chiles. The G.O.P. campaign was headed by the President's son, Jeb Bush, a Miami real estate executive who once served Martinez as the state's secretary of commerce. The President himself visited Florida several times to stump for Martinez. First Lady Barbara even made campaign commercials for him.

The Governor's drug-fighting strategy emphasized tough law enforcement. Martinez briefly called out the National Guard to crack down on smugglers and rammed through the legislature a law mandating the death penalty for drug kingpins. To make room for a huge increase in arrests for drug-related crimes, he doubled the number of beds in state prisons to 43,000. Martinez crusaded for drug testing in the workplace, including the Governor's office. He made headlines by taking the first test himself. He also expanded drug-prevention education in Florida schools.

But Martinez was far less concerned with providing treatment for addicts. His special drug and crime policy office was slow to fund programs. Promising experiments like Miami's 17-month-old drug court, which has had success in keeping first-time drug offenders out of further trouble by forcing them to accept treatment, got no financial help from the state. Even the Governor's office finds it hard to point to progress in Florida's effort to curb drug use.

Martinez has a reputation for imperious leadership, not the best qualification for a man who now may have to cajole Congress, bureaucrats and foreign leaders. "He has talents," said the Miami Herald in an editorial last week, "but persuasiveness is not high among them." If he assumes the post of drug czar, Martinez will need to grasp the drug problem in all its dimensions. Until then, it will be an open question whether he is the man for the job -- or just a man who needed one.