Back in the Bully Pulpit

By Hugh Sidey

At the Pentagon and the State Department, they still remember a White House meeting of the National Drug Policy Board at which Education Secretary William Bennett growled, "Let's send the helicopters into Bolivia again to destroy the drug sources."

The brass stammered that they did not have enough helicopters. "Come on," Bennett chided. "Tell me honestly, just how many helicopters do you have?" Before the answer came, the State Department rushed in to help fend off the rambunctious Secretary. "We can't be sending in helicopters with a big U.S.A. painted on them in red, white and blue," the diplomats argued. Bennett put on that slightly bemused, slightly menacing look that he gets before combat, and replied, "Then paint the hammer and sickle on them."

Big Bill Bennett (6 ft. 2 in., 225 lbs. and gaining) was not the nation's drug czar then, but he may be next time he encounters those cautious bureaucrats. Bennett was nominated by President-elect George Bush last week to the newly created Cabinet-level post, and instantly lines of contention were drawn for the Senate hearings once Bush takes over.

Philosopher, lawyer, teacher, former tackle for the Williams College "Ephmen" and compulsive thrasher in smooth waters, Bennett has clapped a restrainer on his formidable tongue until the confirmation hearings. They are expected to go his way, despite a legion of ruffled academics left from his 3 1/2 iconoclastic years at Education. He suggested, among other things, that tony universities were not giving students their big money's worth.

Bennett, if confirmed, will oversee and coordinate all the Government's drug efforts. Next to the deficit, drugs are the hot spot of politics. Like Bush, Bennett believes the U.S. must sharpen attacks on both the supply and the demand ends of the drug trade. But long ago he saw that education was the only way finally to control the scourge. "The core problem is the children," he told friends, "particularly children in the big cities. They are dying from drugs."

Described by an aide as "a tornado in a wheat field," Bennett as drug czar would have to be a deft persuader and work with dozens of agencies like the CIA and the Pentagon as well as foreign governments like Bolivia and Colombia. That may not come easy for his heretical nature.

The other side to czardom is ready made for him. That task is to be a highly visible and articulate disturber of the complacent and the comfortable. Already Bennett has been on the phone to enlist the like-minded energy of HUD Secretary-designate Jack Kemp, saying, "You've got public housing, the K mart of drugs. Let's clean 'em up."

Bennett comes around to public service once again after only four months in the private sector. "I made more money in three months than I made in three years in Government ((U.S. pay: about $250,000))," he admitted recently, "and it wasn't very interesting."

On the Monday before Christmas, he telephoned Bush. "I don't want a job," he said, plainly yearning for a job, "but if you want someone to get after drugs, I'll do it for you." Bush thought it over and last Wednesday called Bennett in and told him to get after it. The tornado is about to be unleashed. But this is no wheat field.