The awkward interval: America's long transitions - planning for change in presidential administrations - includes related article on presidential transition teams - Cover Story

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 1, 1993 | by Michael Rust, | Shawn Miller

Richard Neustadt, professor emeritus of government at Harvard University and an adviser to the Truman and Kennedy administrations, has said that because he felt sorry for a Kennedy aide who had put in a lot of time without compensation, he persuaded House Speaker Sam Rayburn to back legislation that would provide money for transition expenses.

This was the opening in the dam, which eventually became a flood.

Brooks says: "For Jack [Kennedy], there weren't all that many people involved in the transition, and Lyndon [Johnson] didn't have all that many. Nixon had quite a few, but it was still a small number, but now we're up to what - 600 or something." Reagan might have been the first to have the kind of all-encompassing shadow government type of transition we see today, he says.

"There was certainly a transition team that was all-encompassing with the Carter administration, but I don't think there were near as many people or that they spent as much money. The whole inauguration and transition of Carter was very inexpensive by comparison with others."

A new development has been the Clinton economic summit and the media attention it attracted. Previous presidents-elect attracted reporters, but "not quite like that," Brooks says. transition meetings were often well-advertised, with the result being photos of the president-elect huddling with advisers. But, says Brooks, "I don't think anyone has ever done something quite like this economic conference that Bill had."

Inaugural festivities, on the other hand, have "gone up and down over the years," says Brooks. Parades and balls began on a fairly small scale with James Madison in 1809 and got bigger as time went on.

In 1841, William Henry Harrison had the first inaugural gala, which included a parade and several parties. Of course, he died a month later. Harrison, at 68 the oldest president to take office until Reagan, was also the first to arrive in Washington via train, says Brooks.

Perhaps seeing Harrison as a cautionary lesson, inaugural organizers scaled back the festivities - to perhaps one ball and an open house at the White House - through William Howard That's inaugural in 1909.

A ball organized by an inaugural committee was not held after 1909, says Brooks. "Wilson was not interested in it; his wife was not interested in it for the first time; the second time we were [close to] war." In 1920, Warren Harding was worried about the invalid Wilson's health and canceled the parade. With Calvin Coolidge in 1925, Brooks says, there was a small parade and a private charity ball at the Mayflower Hotel, and that was again done in 1933 with the Roosevelts. After 1933, there were no more balls until 1949.

It was that man of the people, Harry S. Truman, who developed the imperial festivities we know today, and in 1949, for the first time since 1841, a gala was held.

"The Roosevelts always sort of downplayed the inauguration except for the speech," says Brooks. "And then in '49, everybody was ready to celebrate the end of the war, the position of America in the world and Harry Truman's incredible victory. That's when we started to see inaugurals as we know them now, with so many different events planned."