Reinventing The Wheel.

• Author: DEMPSEY, JOE
• Position: Transitions of power

Transition lessons for the president elect

ON APRIL 19, 1993, OFFICIALS FROM the Federal Bureau of Investigation charged into the Waco, Texas compound of the Branch Davidian cult, smashed down walls, and filled the building with tear gas. Rather than flushing out messianic leader David Koresh and his followers, though, the raid set off a chain reaction of explosions in the group's weapons storehouse. Before the fires were finally extinguished, more than 80 people--including 17 children under the age of 10--had perished. The tragic events at Waco set off a militia movement across the country that would dog the government for years to come.

During the eventual post mortem on the events of that day, researchers examined everything from the tear gas canisters to the FBI leadership to the behavior of the Davidians themselves. But one aspect of the fiasco that has gone largely unnoted is the impact of the fledgling presidency of Bill Clinton. The Waco disaster came just three months into Clinton's tenure, at a time when the White House was in serious disarray. Poor planning after the election had left key White House jobs unfilled, and Clinton had appointed a slew of advisers--as well as an attorney general--who were foreign to Washington and barely knew how to get their mail delivered, much less manage the sprawling federal bureaucracy.

When he ordered the assault on Waco, Clinton didn't know, for instance, that the same man who was leading the charge, Richard Rogers, had commanded the FBI forces at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Those forces killed the unarmed wife of white supremacist Randy Weaver. And Clinton consulted with Attorney General Janet Reno--a former Dade County, Florida prosecutor--for only 15 minutes about her decision, seemingly oblivious to the action on the ground. According to The New York Times, Clinton "never explored the details of the plan or other options, entrusting the decision to an attorney general in office for only six weeks, and a director of the FBI who many believe he would like to force out."

The disaster at Waco should serve as a cautionary tale for the next occupant of the White House, and not only for what it says about handling radical fringe groups. It shows the importance of learning how to get a grip on the federal government that you're supposed to be running in January. And that's just one thing the president-elect will have to take care of during the 73 days between Election Day and the inauguration, along with assembling his team, setting his agenda, mapping out a $1.8 billion budget blueprint, and learning what the nuclear codes are.

The Waco debacle also suggests that if the next president is looking for a role model to emulate during his fledgling presidential term, he would be wise to avoid Clinton. Carter, too, wouldn't be much help. In fact, Al Gore or George W. Bush would be well served to repeat this mantra should they get elected: Be like Reagan. The Gipper may have thought ketchup was a vegetable, and his economic voodoo would create a decade-long debt crisis, but he was able to move smoothly into the White House and, with the help of seasoned aides like James Baker and James Brady, reassure the public that he was in control. His transition wasn't perfect, but it does provide more positive lessons than those of the two Democratic governors who occupied the office on the bookends of Reagan and Bush's 12-year reign.

Both Carter and Clinton came to the presidency without Washington experience. Though they'd tapped into enough of the public's concerns to carry a national election, neither was quite ready for the White House. They hadn't faced off with Congress; they lacked experience in the federal bureaucracy, and they were accustomed to the administrative intimacies of the smaller states they'd governed--places where they could bump into a cabinet secretary in the cafeteria and run into constituents on the street every morning. Worse, neither Carter nor Clinton tapped a strong chief of staff with federal government experience to compensate for their own lack of experience inside the Beltway. A competent chief of staff is critical to breaking up the logjam, queuing up those waiting at your door, and helping the new president figure out the movements of the bureaucracy. In the beginning, Carter tried to get by without a chief of staff at all, while Clinton appointed a trusted friend who didn't know the White House.

And it cost them. While both Carter and Clinton brought good policies to the White House, and had later successes, they both accomplished far less than they could have if they'd gotten off to good starts. With Clinton the point is particularly clear: His greatest accomplishment has been the success of his economic policies, not coincidentally the one part of his administration's plan that he was able to set off on the right foot. He carefully considered top economic appointees and organized a pre-inaugural conference in Little Rock where he showed a keen understanding of economic policy. The rest...