From .......... GOVERNING AMERICA - An Insider's Report
From the White House and the Cabinet
By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
15 .................. STARTING UP
As Carter questioned me, obviously briefed on my background, he struck me as superficially self-effacing but intensely shrewd. He did not disguise his intention to make honesty and competence the issues, to target on Nixon's scandals and Ford's bumbling, and he underlined his determination to run as a nonpolitician and Washington outsider. His questions about Democratic establishment figures were as penetrating as they were persevering. They reflected his early concern about the loyalty of Party Chairman Robert Strauss, and also a keen appreciation that Strauss's ambition and zest to be at the center of the action would in the end motivate him. In a colloquy about Cyrus Vance in which I said that Vance was not only brilliant but has
''as much integrity as any person I've ever met,''
Carter asked,
"I don't doubt it, but is he tough enough to be Secretary of State?"
Carter then turned to the problem of the family. He knew it was a perfect campaign issue for him, and I could sense his contentment in pursuing both good morality and good politics. He expressed his concern about the decline of the American family with the same sincere conviction he exhibited in discussing his concern about the [Roman] Catholic vote.
He urged me, in preparing the report on the family, to consult widely with [Roman] Catholics and look for an appropriate forum for a campaign speech.
Carter talked about the Great Society programs of Lyndon Johnson and my work in those years, but much of his immediate interest in me was prompted by the fact that I was a [Roman] Catholic. It was the first time in my life I had been singled out (either for favor or discrimination) for that reason, but I was so interested in the outside possibility of the HEW post that I never thought twice about it at the time.
While Carter discussed the anti-family aspects of federal policy, abortion, and the politics of the [Roman] Catholic vote, never once during that two-hour meeting did he mention-the Democratic Party. As I thought about that on my drive back to my summer home in Wellfleet on Cape Cod, I recalled the first time I had met him, at one of Boston Mayor Kevin White's small political dinners a couple of nights after the 1974 congressional elections. We were discussing the meaning of the election.
''If anything, political party labels are a burden these days. People don't care about political parties today," Governor Jimmy Carter commented as we sat in the house on Beacon Hill.
"Yes, they do," White said,
and brand-new congressman-elect from New Hampshire Norman D'Amours agreed. Carter turned to D'Amours.
"Norman, when I got off the plane to campaign for you in New Hampshire, you asked me never to mention the Democratic Party."
Carter made the point quietly, but with such force that D'Amours said nothing for the rest of the evening.
16 .................... GOVERNING AMERICA
After the election, Mondale told me he was urging Carter to name me to a Cabinet post. preferably HEW. In mid-November, House Speaker [Roman Catholic] Tip O'Neill told me that Carter was actively considering me for a major post.
"I spent the whole damn ride from Carter's house to the airport this afternoon talking about you,''
he said when we bumped into each other at Duke Zeibert's Washington restaurant.
''He kept asking me questions about you. He mentioned two or three jobs. When he mentioned HEW, I told him you'd be a great Secretary of HEW, but I said, 'Mr. President, Joe isn't going to take a job like that. He's served his time with Lyndon Johnson. He makes a fortune as a lawyer in Washington.' ''
"Tip," I exclaimed, "I'm interested in that job. I'd like to prove that HEW can be run, that those Great Society programs can work.''
''You've got to be crazy," O'Neill said, then recovered quickly. ''Well, I recommended you and, you poor guy, you may just get it.''
The first time I saw Carter after the election was when he interviewed me on December 7 at the governor's red brick white collonaded mansion in Atlanta. Half of the hour-long interview was conducted with Hamilton Jordan and Charles Kirbo present; the last half was alone with the President-elect. By this time, Carter knew a great deal about me. During my meeting with Carter, he asked me two questions that I in turn asked almost everyone I interviewed for HEW:
"What is the most difficult thing you have ever done in your life?'' and, "I've got a folder full of your good qualities, but what do you think your weaknesses are?"
''Most difficult?" I thought for a moment. ''Working for Lyndon Johnson. But it was also the most satisfying. As for weaknesses, I suppose it's that I've never run anything larger than a law firm."
''This is my most serious doubt about you. What makes you think you can manage a large Cabinet department?'' Carter asked.
I cited my experience with Secretary of Defense [Roman Catholic] Robert McNamara and President Johnson, and my book A Presidential Nation (Carter had read it), which had a large section on government management and organization. Carter listened noncommittally, then said,
''Tell me what job you're interested in. And don't limit me to one, because I have a lot of juggling to do."
He mentioned HEW, Defense, Housing and Urban development, and Justice. I had been one of those recommending Harold Brown for Secretary of Defense, and I said that I would not be interested in the Housing and Urban Development post. Carter asked if I had any questions.
''Only one," I responded. ''Will I have the ability to pick my own people?"
''Yes. Many are presidential appointments, of course, but barring a crime or some serious embarrassment in an FBI check, you can select your own people. I intend to keep my promise of Cabinet government to the American people."
- END QUOTE -
GOVERNING AMERICA - An Insider's Report
From the White House and the Cabinet
By Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Published by Simon and Schuster 1981
ISBN 0-671-25428-6