This small squall paw& quickly in the excitement over the other appointments. In fact, Clinton has probably already forgotten it. He is almost absurdly willing to forgive if it suits his political interests. Transition officials have nicknamed a certain category of associates the “EOBs” (enemies of Bill)people like Leon Panetta and Alice Rivlin, who criticize his ideas and get big jobs anyway. His chipless shoulder was on display again last week when Al Gore felt free to correct him during a press conference (Clinton had mistakenly said that Carol Browner is the first woman EPA chief). It was the first time anyone could recall a vice president publicly contradicting the top man. With Clinton, this was viewed as unremarkable.
The downside of indulgence is that it can be mistaken for softness. Clinton aides insist the Treasury secretary will Know His Place. Bentsen was a good soldier when he ran for vice president with Michael Dukakis in 1988, and he helped out whenever asked this year. “He’ll play to history,” says one adviser confidently. For his ego, they can name some policy initiative after him. “We’ll call it the ‘Bentsen Plan’ or something.”
Can this aloof, proud patrician be bought so cheaply,.? It’s hard to imagine that Bentsen, elected to Congress two years after Clinton was born, will be able to shake, rattle and roll with the Little Rockers. Washington hands often point to C. Douglas Dillon, JFK’s conservative Treasury secretary. Same idea, right? An old fogey to make the world think there’s a grown-up on the bridge? No. Dillon was actually only 51 when he got the job-a near peer of the young president. Bentsen is 71.
And “teamwork” is not just boilerplate with this crowd. Everything points to a different, less hierarchical approach similar to that of the campaign, where even a lowly intern could talk to campaign strategist James Carville if she or he had an idea. One of the reasons campaign chairman Mickey Kantor failed was that he tried to play by the old hierarchical rules that are out of favor with the Clintons. The new ’90s management style is typified by General Motors’ innovative Saturn project, where workers and management break down traditional lines of authority to form collegial teams. Instead of power being a function of big staff and how many bones you can crush, it’s measured more by lean staff and by how well you work with others. For instance, Skip Rutherford, long-time aide to Mack McLarty, Clinton’s choice for chief of staff, claims he has never seen McLarty lose his temper.
The “team” has been the idea behind every appointment so far except Bentsen’s. He was supposed to be the “symbol”-the silver-haired secretary from Central Casting. But looks aren’t everything. As even the Clinton camp admits, the idea that Bentsen will “reassure” financial markets here and abroad is silly. Such reassurance is good for about two weeks; after that, the markets respond to policies and performance, not people. The real reason for Bentsen’s appointment is the hope that he will get Clinton’s package through Congress. Maybe so. If the chant under Richard Nixon was “We are all Keynesians now,” under Clinton it may be “We are all congressional-liaison specialists now.” But there’s some faulty Washington logic here. For all the courtesy and friendship, when members of Congress leave the Hill, they leave much of their clout behind. Bentsen’s knowledge of the Senate is considerable, but in practical terms it involves mostly what tax favors the other members of his Senate Finance Committee want. Of course, providing them with those favors next year would gut the president’s program. Clinton’s more liberal aides are determined that they, not Bentsen, fill the important Treasury subcabinet posts. Otherwise Treasury could turn Clinton’s tax bill into a Christmas tree of special-interest ornaments even before it’s sent up to Congress.
The best argument for Bentsen is that it removes him as an obstacle in the Senate. “If you disagree with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, you have to negotiate with him; if you disagree with the Treasury secretary, you can tell him what to do,” says one Clinton aide. This theory might work if Bentsen decides to become a latter-day Arthur Vandenberg, the famous isolationist senator who converted to internationalism in the mid-1940s. Can “Loophole Lloyd” close loopholes that are nothing but giveaways to big companies that created few or no jobs in the 1980s? Can the onetime PAC champ win approval for tough campaign-finance reform? If Bill Clinton can turn Lloyd Bentsen into a reformer, he may have a little of LBJ in him after all.
