Getting Out the Wrecking Ball

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In her 15 months as Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders urged the government to study legalizing drugs, backed the distribution of contraceptives in schools and counseled abortion foes to get over their "love affair" with the fetus. Bill Clinton stood by her throughout, suggesting that his old Arkansas friend was misunderstood.

Not anymore. The Clinton White House, in a virtual trauma for days, is now desperately trying to regain its footing after the disastrous midterm elections. So when the President learned last Friday morning that Elders had recently called on schools to consider teaching students about masturbation, he lost no time in firing her. "There have been too many areas in which the President does not agree with her views," said White House chief of staff Leon Panetta. "This is just one too many."

Clinton's reincarnation as a centrist is fully under way. The election- induced rush to the middle began three weeks ago, when Clinton announced he would contemplate a law allowing for a moment of silence in schools. The next week he boosted Pentagon spending by $25 billion. Last week top EPA officials met with Governors to ease automobile-emissions testing requirements. And the Agriculture Department, a virtual Harvestore of unnecessary spending, announced that it would close 1,274 field offices around the U.S. Though Clinton complained privately last week that he had already made dramatic cuts in government, some top aides pushed him to cut more. "People don't feel it," a member of the Cabinet explained last week. "It's just not big enough."

That stature gap helps explain why both parties are playing a new Washington game called "Whose Wrecking Ball Is Bigger?" After Republican Newt Gingrich announced his plan to sell one of five House office buildings, jealous Clinton aides one-upped the Republican leader with a plan to padlock an entire federal agency. Hearing of this, Republican leaders late last Friday began work on a new budget plan to close four agencies: HUD, Energy, Education and Commerce. The bidding war exasperated one official. "Now we're in a situation," he said, "where if we don't abolish three agencies, we look weak."

The scramble to do something dramatic, and do it quickly, led Clinton to try to bring a Republican into the Cabinet. A senior official approached former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman two weeks ago about replacing Lloyd Bentsen as Treasury Secretary. Rudman declined the tentative offer, however, and Clinton turned to Robert Rubin, the director of the National Economic Council, who had been Bentsen's presumptive heir for months. Rubin isn't expected to change course at Treasury, but his ability to broker compromises on bitter policy fights will be missed at the White House.

Indeed, an edgy mood permeates the West Wing. Senior officials renowned for optimism on the bleakest of days are spiteful in private and pessimistic in public. Party leaders wonder whether Clinton can or should seek a second term -- or whether to turn to Al Gore instead. Agency executives and Democrats on - Capitol Hill complain that decision making has nearly halted while Clinton remains huddled with top aides. "We're in uncharted waters," said a White House official, "and nobody has their bearings."