Word: watt
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That was insufficient, however, to calm worried environmentalists, who fear that Clark may share James Watt's essential view that there should be more commercial use of public lands. By their reckoning, Clark could prove an even more formidable adversary than Watt because of his low-key, nonbelligerent style and close personal ties with President Reagan. Many environmentalists were quick to point out that Clark has no real expertise in the intricacies of land-management policy and the myriad regulations that the Interior Department must observe or enforce. Complained William Turnage, executive director of the Wilderness Society: "This...
Nonetheless, career veterans at the Interior Department, as well as many Watt-appointed loyalists, look forward to having a boss who has the President's ear. In any bureaucratic battles, notably those with Budget Director David Stockman, the Interior officials expect Clark to emerge on top. "We feel good and secure that he's so close to Reagan," says one Interior aide...
Interior bureaucrats also expect the glare of public attention on the department to soften under Clark. Watt's public remarks got in the way of gaining broad support for his policies. As one department official puts it: "He's a great fella, but why did he have to shoot his mouth off like that?" Though Clark may be far less vocal, Interior aides expect him to be an aggressive boss, despite his inexperience with environmental issues. On the other hand, no radical shifts in policy are expected. Says one department veteran: "Reagan and Watt didn't have...
Some of Reagan's critics see the Reagan-Clark intimacy as oddly advantageous to environmentalists. "Reagan has lost his lightning rod," contends Polly Freeman, spokeswoman for the Sierra Club. With Watt going and Clark arriving, the President, she believes, will have to take more heat on environmental issues. About the best that environmentalists could say about Clark last week was that his lack of knowledge on land issues could work in their favor. Says Janet Brown, executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund: "Maybe it's better he start with no opinion than the opinions James Watt started...
...legions of eager critics will not have James Watt to kick around any more. Indeed, Watt will probably be most remembered for the kind of righteous, goading declarations that finally forced his resignation: long before his crack about "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple," Watt had said that the electorate is composed of "liberals and Americans" and that Beach Boys fans are riffraff. But Watt did more than just make inflammatory pronouncements. He pushed through radical changes in Interior policy, most of which are likely to endure at least as long as Ronald Reagan is President...