Watt: Adding Coal to the Fires

Interior Secretary James Watt last week tried a new tack in his campaign to survive in office. His method: lying low in the wake of criticism loosed a fortnight ago when he described a newly appointed advisory commission by saying, "I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple." Watt reportedly drafted a resignation letter but did not send it. President Reagan told aides he thought Watt ran his department well, then announced that he would not ask him to resign. Instead, said Reagan, "I have accepted his apology."

That presidential pardon was enough to derail a no-confidence resolution in the Senate. Even so, insiders were betting that the Secretary's days were numbered. G.O.P. strategists view Watt's loose lip as a political liability. Said one top White House aide: "It hurts us on the 'sensitivity' issue."

Meanwhile, the now famous five-member advisory commission, appointed at the behest of Congress to review Interior's controversial coal-leasing program, gamely met in Washington. But Watt chose not to wait for its recommendations; instead, he decided to issue five leases for coal-rich federal land in North Dakota to private companies (cost to them: $912 million). That decision flew in the face of a directive from the House Interior Committee, which had ordered Watt to delay granting the leases until Congress could review them. As Watt saw it, the House had no legal right to stop him. But U.S. District Court Judge Louis Oberdorfer disagreed, ruling that the House had the right to delay the leases under Article IV of the Constitution, which grants Congress the "power to dispose" of U.S. lands. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.