Leon Panetta isn't sure whether the changes he ushers in as White House chief of staff will bear the label "bold and dramatic" or "incremental," but he's promising them sooner rather than later.
While taking care to praise the tenure of outgoing Chief of Staff Mack McLarty, Panetta made it clear Tuesday he hopes to move swiftly to bring more discipline to a loosely organized White House operation.Panetta spent his first full day in the transfer of power easing into the new role and laying out his marching orders from a president known to relish the minutiae of policy and government.
"What he is interested in is trying to get an efficient, effective management operation there so he doesn't have to in any way spend time micromanaging," Panetta told reporters.
What Clinton needs, Panetta, said, is a staff that can give him a "disciplined day" in which he can delve into the issues he loves and still have time to focus on the weighty decisions that only he can make.
Panetta isn't sure what it will take to accomplish that, but he has promised more staff changes, creating some nervousness in the corridors outside the Oval Office.
"I'm not interested in implementing a label," he said. "I'm not going to sit here and say I want to do `bold and dramatic' when what may be needed in the White House may be `incremental.' At the same time, if I find that incremental doesn't work, it may involve larger changes."
In either event, Panetta says, "I'm the type that likes to get it done earlier rather than later."