Who Is Harold Ickes ?
Charles Zeps
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The day Harold M. Ickes decided to follow his
father's footsteps to the White House, he sat on his daughter's bed
and broke the news to a sad little girl who liked her life in New
York.
"Daddy," 7-year-old Charlotte said. "You call Bill and tell him
that Washington is a boring town. We're not coming!"
But Ickes moved to Washington anyhow, becoming Clinton's deputy
chief of staff and main political operative for the 1996 re-election
campaign. And Ickes' daughter now resents the time he spends away from
her, working 16 hours a day -- six or seven days a week.
"But that's the way it goes," Ickes said. "You work here, that's
what you do."
More than a half-century ago, Harold L. Ickes served his president
with the same single-mindedness. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
interior secretary, a political hatchet man who administered the
massive public works projects of the Depression era.
"The Old Curmudgeon" died when his son was 12, leaving few memories
with the boy.
"I didn't know him well at all," the younger Ickes said.
What he knows about his dad, Ickes learned from his mother, friends
and -- to a great extent -- a recent biography. Black-and-white
photographs of his father at work adorn Ickes' office walls, a few
steps from the Oval Office.
With a hint of regret, the son said, "He was a workaholic."
Why, then, does Ickes spend nearly as little time with Charlotte as
his dad did with him? "I believe in what the president is trying to
do," he explained. "And it's a great experience to work here."
But he does not entirely dismiss another theory: The force of his
father's legacy has produced tremendous drive.
------
Ickes grew up on a 258-acre farm in Olney, Md., surrounded by
horses, cattle and sheep. His mother ran the farm while his father
worked in Washington.
He adored his mother, and never forgave what he calls the "culture
of Washington" for slighting the Ickes family soon after THE Ickes
died in 1952.
"A lot of the people who she thought were friends she never heard
anything from afterward," he said.
Ickes spent his teen-age summers in Oregon, riding horses and
roping cattle on a ranch. He hated school, nearly flunking his junior
year, and had no plans for college.
"I wanted to be a cowboy," he said, his face breaking into a
weather-beaten grin.
So he worked out West on ranches for three years before going to
college and law school. "I don't regret doing it," he said, grinning
again. "In fact, there are times I wish I were back there."
------
Once in college, Ickes' courtship with politics was inevitable --
"There was a history in my family" -- but his initiation was bloody.
Registering blacks to vote in the summer of 1965, he was driving
down a Louisiana road with two black men when a car full of whites
blocked their path.
He sent the blacks back to town. "I was afraid they would get
killed," Ickes said. "I didn't think I would."
He nearly did, getting stomped so badly he later lost a kidney.
In 1967, Ickes got involved in the anti-war movement and met
Clinton for the first time on a Vietnam project in the 1970s.
------
Ickes, meanwhile, was busy building a reputation for bold political
moves, rowdy temper tantrums and a knifing wit.
Some examples:
--An argument in 1973 over the location of a speaker system ended
with Ickes on the floor, holding a man between his legs in a
scissor-lock, when a third man tried to break the fight up.
Ickes took a chunk out of the peacemaker's leg. "It was a good
solid bite," he said.
--Working for Jesse Jackson at the 1988 Democratic convention,
Ickes wanted as much leverage as possible out of his 1,200 delegates.
Touring the convention center with a party representative and an
aide to nominee Michael Dukakis, he asked again and again about a
package he was expecting. Finally, the Dukakis aide asked what was in
the package.
With a straight face, Ickes answered, "1,200 whistles," then
watched the Dukakis aide turn pale at the thought of a noisy Jackson
protest.
Ickes, the story goes, never was expecting a delivery.
------
"It's overblown," Ickes said of his take-no-prisoners reputation.
But his temper is legendary in the White House, a belittling force
to some aides. They're among the ones who place Ickes at the scene of
Clinton's three biggest bungles: health reform, Whitewater damage
control and the 1994 elections.
He now manages Clinton's political operation from the inside,
trying to harmonize his best advice with the president's stubborn
instincts and input from outside advisers.
Many staffers said they admire Ickes for his loyalty and sincerity,
and argue that Ickes uses his temper to motivate.
"Harold Ickes is one of the few places to go in the White House for
good political advice," said Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.
Although he has mellowed some, Ickes conceded that he has enormous
amounts of anger. He doesn't know why.
"I am not a psychologist."
------
So, after clawing his way through the politics of the 1960s and the
not-for-the-weak world of New York campaigns, has Harold M. finally
earned the Ickes name?
He doesn't like to talk in those terms, perhaps because he's still
working on the answer. "I inherited the name so I finally decided I'll
make the best use of it I could," he said.
NAME -- Harold McEwen Ickes.
AGE-BIRTH DATE -- 55, Sept. 6, 1939.
EDUCATION -- Sidwell Friends School, Washington; bachelor's degree,
Stanford University, 1964; law degree, Columbia University, 1971.
EXPERIENCE -- Co-manager of Eugene McCarthy for President Campaign
in New York, 1968; deputy director, rules committee, Kennedy for
President Campaign, 1980; deputy director, rules committee, Mondale
for President, 1984; director, rules committee, Jackson for President,
1988; manager, New York State Clinton for President primary campaign,
1992; deputy director Clinton-Gore transition team; partner of Meyer,
Suozzi, English and Klein law firm, 1977-1993.
FAMILY -- Wife, attorney Laura Handman; daughter, Charlotte,
QUOTE -- "I can get angry -- as can anybody get angry. You work
very long hours under real pressure here so you can sometimes get
angry."
"But you earn what you earn on your own."
Nongr10234
"Ickes is viewed by many as being far more adept with the fix than George
(Snuffelupugus) because now in his 60s, he was the steward for nearly nine
years of New York's corrupt Local 100 of the Hotel and Restaurant
Employees International Union, which for two decades was dominated by the
mob. He came to the Clinton administration in January 1994 with the heavy
stench of "fixer" trailing behind him - and with the tell-tale onus of
having been denied a clean bill of health from the FBI. The G-men weren't
happy with Ickes's performance as overseer of Local 100."
I can't find it now, but somewhere in this same book, it says the Ickes is
now Whitewater point man in the White House. Wouldn't be surprised is he
is behind some of these Arkancides.