Word: darman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Darman is scheduled shortly to move from his quarters in the White House basement to an office just outside Reagan's. That physical proximity will aid Darman in one of his principal duties, overseeing the day-to-day paper flow to and from the President...
...line-up will also give Darman's mentor Baker a chance to consolidate the making of policy, which Meese nominally controlled, with political and legislative strategies. For the past three weeks, at Baker's behest, Darman has coordinated a daily 7:30 breakfast meeting in the White House mess that brought the previously bifurcated realms of the Executive apparatus together on an effective basis for the first time since Reagan took office. As a result of the changes, predicts a senior Administration official, "we'll be less inclined to go with off-the-wall stuff that cannot...
...Darman's ascendancy is all the more intriguing for his Eastern Establishment background. The oldest child of a New England industrialist, Darman earned his B. A. and a master's degree in business administration from Harvard and entered Government during the Nixon years under the tutelage of his fellow Brahmin, Elliot Richardson. Darman's various jobs in five Cabinet departments included a stint at Commerce, where he impressed Baker, then an Assistant Secretary, with his ability to analyze vast tangles of information. Baker chose Darman in 1981 as his assistant, says Press Spokesman Larry Speakes, because...
With brains, however, come doubts, even private torment, about some of the rigidly conservative aspects of the Reagan agenda. Indeed, while he and Budget Director David Stockman were plotting ways to win passage of the massive 1981 tax cut. Darman had deep reservations about a policy that he thought, correctly, would create huge deficits. He justifies his support for those cuts by arguing, "It was strategically important that the capacity to govern be demonstrated." He also coordinated White House efforts to win congressional approval for placing the Marines in Lebanon, even though he internally opposed that decision. Indeed, Darman...
While moderates view Darman as a welcome balancing force, conservatives see him as a liberal mole. Says Conservative Columnist M. Stanton Evans: "He has undermined the Reagan agenda." Even a sympathetic co-worker admits that "Dick would feel comfortable working in a Democratic Administration." Friends label him a Government junkie, an operator who hopes to spend most of his life working at the top levels of Washington officialdom...