REAGAN AND BAKER BEGIN TASK OF REBUILDING
After a week that left his presidency
shaken and his popularity at a new low, Ronald Reagan and his
new chief of staff today begin trying to revive an
administration tattered by the Iran-contra arms scandal.
    Reagan and former Senate Republican leader Howard Baker,
whose appointment as White House chief of staff won bipartisan
praise, will begin mapping strategy to deal with scathing
criticism by a report on his failed bid to trade U.S. arms with
Iran for help in freeing Ameican hostages in Lebanon.
    Among the chores facing Reagan's new inner circle is
assessing the damage the 300-page Tower commission report has
done to the nomination of Robert Gates to succeed William Casey
as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
    White House officials are checking to see how much support
Gates, a 43-year old career spy agency bureaucrat, would have
if his nomination is submitted to the full Senate for a vote,
Senate Republican leader Robert Dole said.
    Appearing on the NBC News program, "Meet the Press," the
Kansas senator said the Gates nomination "could be in some
difficulty."
    Aides said that Gates' future would be given high priority
by Baker.
    Even though he was not deeply implicated in the arms sale
scandal, lawmakers said Senate confirmation of the Gates
nomination is not assured and, even if won, would come only
after months of congressional probes into the affair.
    "He has the smell of Iran on him," said former Nevada Sen.
and Reagan confidant Paul Laxalt. "He is a victim."
    Laxalt, appearing on the ABC News program, "This Week With
David Brinkley," bluntly admitted "the Gates nomination is in
trouble." Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn said
the odds are now slightly against confirmation of Gates.
    When asked on the syndicated television program, "John
McLaughlin: One on One," if he thought Gates would be confirmed,
the Georgia Democrat shot back: "I wouldn't bet any money on it.
    "I think this report hurts that," Nunn said. "It indicates
that the National Security Council had policy-type influence
over intelligence-type activities and we're going to go into
that with Mr. Gates.
    Only a day after it was issued last week, the Tower report
prompted the abrupt exit of Donald Regan as White House chief
of staff.
    Regan, the former Wall Street executive and Treasury
secretary who has been the president's top aide for the past
two years, was assigned the lion's share of the blame for the
botched handling of the Iran arms sale.
    The report blamed Regan for the "chaos that descended on the
White House" since it was first revealed last November that
profits from the Iran arms sales had been diverted to contra
rebels fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government.
    The two other victims of the scandal are former National
Security Adviser Vice Adm. John Poindexter who resigned and
Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North who was fired after it was
disclosed last November 23 that profits from the Iran arms sale
were diverted to the contras. The two, pictured by the Tower
commission as the key operators of the Iran arms deal, have
refused to testify.
    Reagan, who freely admits disliking details, is portrayed
in the Tower report as a befuddled chief executive whose
inattention let his aides run away with his foreign policy.
    That perception has wrecked Reagan's popularity and
threatened to condemn him to lame duck status until he leaves
office in January 1989. A recent Newsweek magazine poll found
that just 40 pct of Americans approved of Reagan's leadership,
a record low, and a third believed he should consider
resignation.
    After meeting with aides over the weekend and poring over
the meaty report of the commission headed by former Texas Sen.
John Tower, Reagan is now preparing for a nationwide television
address this week to respond to the criticisms of his
presidency.
 Reuter
