Word: darman
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...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...
...Darman bristles at the suggestion that he is an ambitious mercenary who works for Reagan only to be at the center of power. "Basically, I'm committed to public service," he contends. "I am a long-term idealist and a short-term realist." He says that he supports the Reagan revolution as "an important corrective" to stop America from drifting too far from a workable free-market economy. "If I had to go home too many nights and tell my self that what I am doing is not right, I could not continue doing this...
Ideology aside, Darman's laser-like political foresight has served his boss well...