Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 30, 1993 TAG: 9305300075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL KELLY THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"It is clear now, in contrast to how Clinton presented himself during the campaign, that the Democrats' true agenda is to reverse the direction set by Ronald Reagan," said Gergen, who was the White House communications director in Reagan's first term. "And the irony is that they are attempting to do this by using the same techniques Reagan used."
In that interview the man who was a senior adviser to three Republican presidents said of the Clinton political operators: "They understand what Reagan understood. They have grasped the essential point that a presidency attempting change is a campaign, and you have to work it like a campaign."
But the Clinton administration's "permanent campaign" proved infinitely less successful than the Reagan machine. Where the Reagan White House was a vault of secrets, the Clinton administration leaks like a congressional committee. Where the Reagan operation seemed to effortlessly stage propaganda coups like Nancy Reagan's interruption of a televised presidential appearance to "surprise" her husband with a birthday cake, the Clinton operation has reeled from one public-relations disaster to another.
Now, proving anew that the abiding faith of this city is neither Republicanism nor Democratism, but Inside-ism, the 51-year-old Gergen has signed on as counselor to President Clinton, a role in which Gergen will shape the administration's effort to reverse the very policies that he once sold for President Reagan.
The way Gergen describes his new job it sounds vaguely but powerfully defined, more so even than when he was Reagan's communications director.
"When they approached me, they said they were looking for someone who will be at the intersection of policy and politics and communication," he said Saturday in a telephone interview. "They said they would like my judgment to be brought to bear in those roles. They said we would also like you to oversee the communications shop."
Gergen's transition caught many flat-footed, but not, of course, Gergen. On Saturday, as always, he had the spin ready, and Gergen on Gergen was as seamlessly smooth as Gergen on Reagan ever was or Gergen on Clinton promises to be.
"I'm not a Republican," he said. "I've always been a registered independent. I grew up in North Carolina as a Democrat and I didn't even know any Republicans until I was 21. A lot of people are surprised when I say this, but I got my start in politics in the civil-rights movement, working for Terry Sanford, who was then governor of North Carolina, on these biracial Good Neighbor Councils that Sanford set up around the state."
Gergen said that he was "of course" aware that some Republicans would accuse him of disloyalty and opportunism, but that he was willing to accept that.
"Some on the far right wrote me off a long time ago, back in the Reagan years, and rightfully so," he said. "They knew I was not a deep conservative. I never tried to masquerade as a strong conservative. But do I think I'll take some hits from the right? Sure. And the president will take some hits from the left."
Asked about his observation that the Clinton administration was seeking to reverse the direction set by Reagan, Gergen said he believed that "in some areas they are trying to undo some aspects of the Reagan period."
"Let me make it clear," he added, "that I am proud that I worked for Ronald Reagan. He did a great deal for this country - brought inflation down, won the Cold War, created a lot of jobs. But there were also things that were not addressed in the 1980s such as the pressing social problems and the declining standard of living for the middle class, and I think those things need to be undone."
by CNB