These young men of principle now face daunting new jobs that will define their late middle age. Cohen will run Defense, Lake the CIA. Neither man is going to have an easy time of it. Both institutions are treacherous bureaucracies with a long history of bucking reform–and to the hidebound cultures of the Pentagon and Langley, Cohen and Lake are very much outsiders.
A lean and still boyish 56, Cohen will bring an unusual literary bent (three novels and two books of poetry) to Defense. When the former classics major announced his retirement from the Senate last year, he invoked T. S. Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a meditation on aging. “A lot of admirals and generals will have to go back and read [up on] the Peloponnesian War,” says Christian Potholm, a former fraternity brother. When Clinton went hunting for a moderate Republican to smooth his second-term relations with a GOP Congress, Cohen’s name quickly surfaced. His principal patron was Vice President Al Gore (the two had worked well together on defense issues in the Senate). And though Cohen and Clinton hit it off in a series of job interviews, Gore was the one who kept his old colleague’s name in play.
Moving from the Hill to Defense can be rough. Like Cohen, the late Les Aspin came to the job in 1993 as a respected national-security thinker. And like Cohen, Aspin had never previously managed anything larger than a congressional-committee staff. Aspin’s academic manner quickly alienated the military brass, undermining his effectiveness. His tenure ended after 11 months. Friends say Cohen is no Aspin, but they want him to bring someone along who can manage the day-to-day business. And to watch his back.
Cohen is the highest-ranking bipartisan appointee since Kennedy made Douglas Dillon Treasury secretary, and while there is much pleasant talk of a “vital center” in Washington, such sentiments may not last. It’s far from certain, for example, that Cohen’s congressional bona fides will carry much weight when he begins arguing for a Clinton defense budget that his former colleagues think is too low. Budget wrangling could also quickly lead to tensions with Clinton and the White House. With Cohen’s independent streak, it’s possible this could be a quite brief experiment in bipartisanship.
Lake was violently ill with a stomach virus when the president called to formally offer him the CIA directorship. The job probably won’t improve his health. He inherits an agency hobbled by scandals–most recently the Harold Nicholson case–and confused about the role of intelligence after the cold war. A mainstay of Clinton’s first-term national-security team, Lake was a steady hand helping to steer the president through risky interventions in Bosnia and Haiti. Yet some wonder whether the professorial Lake, with little background in espionage, is right for Langley, where old-timers are well practiced in the black arts of thwarting interlopers. One asset he’ll have is Deputy Director George Tenet, his former White House aide and pool-shooting buddy.
But he is under no illusions. Last week Lake poked fun at outgoing Director John Deutch’s large feet. “This is a size EEE job,” said Lake. For Lake and Cohen–and Bill Clinton–the task now is to make sure the new shoes fit.
