The Chief of Staff — Is Staff (Jeffrey Lord)

american spectator ^ | Jeffrey Lord

[RoosterRedux]

General Kelly is the right choice at the right time.

The time: Early 1987. The place: The White House.

Swirling around like a political typhoon was what was quaintly known as “The Iran-Contra Affair.” (Democrats always replaced the word “affair” with the word “scandal.”) The essence: a confounding plot to get around a congressional ban on funding the anti-Communist Nicaraguan “Contras” by using profits from secret missile sales to Iran, the deal designed to get various American hostages released.

The story had emerged in November of 1986 after the congressional elections were over — elections in which the GOP lost control of the Senate, putting both House and Senate in Democratic Party hands. There were the demands for a congressional investigation and a special prosecutor. And, of course, there were cries of impeaching President Reagan.

Inside the White House, where I was ensconced as an Associate Director for Political Affairs, it was no secret that Mrs. Reagan wanted the Chief of Staff — Don Regan — fired. Mr. Regan was a very smart guy. An up-by-the-bootstraps Massachusetts Irishman who had crowned a Wall Street career as chairman of Merrill Lynch. Reagan had made him Secretary of the Treasury, a job he was eminently qualified for and in which he did well. Then? Then trouble.

By post-election 1984, White House Chief of Staff James A. Baker III was understandably ready to move on. He had been COS for all of Reagan’s successful first term. The job is a killer and Baker had grown both tired of it and ambitious for a Cabinet slot. There was a move to replace him with my then-boss, ex-Reagan Transportation and then-Warner-Amex (the predecessor of Time Warner) CEO Drew Lewis. Lewis was led to believe the deal was well on its way to being done.

[rktman]

Nah! Just the militarization of the White House. ;-)

[SandRat]

And the media hounds hate having to abide by the rules of courtesy and manners.