For the Record

Ronald Reagan’s dramatic offer of peace negotiations with Nicaraguan government followed weeks of intensive White House infighting, with Mike Deaver opposing any presidential gesture toward Nicaragua that might upset European allies before next month’s European trip. In the end, forces headed by Pat Buchanan won the battle, according to Evans & Novak, and now outside chance is conceded that Administration could get $14 million it wants for Contras. . . . At least liberal columnist Mary McGrory thinks so. Opponents of the covert war, who, as she describes it, “hate to see Uncle Sam bullying a small country” and who are “repelled by Contra atrocities,” fear their twenty-vote margin in the House won’t hold up. Mrs. McGrory was all shook up that Arturo Cruz, a former junta member, has joined the Contras.

Conservative fears that Faith Whittlesey’s public-liaison post in White House would be downgraded or neutered are dissipated by appointment of outspoken Civil Rights Commission staff director Linda Chavez to post. Mrs. Chavez, a Democrat, is switching parties. . . . Hierarchically, she will report to Pat Buchanan, who, it is revealed (it’s income-tax time), took a $325,- 000-a-year cut in pay to return to the White House. . . . Back to Mary McGrory, who, commenting on Jeane Kirkpatrick’s party switch a week earlier, says right-wingers are turned on by her because “she has shown them glimpses of the killer strain which they equate with greatness.”

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Ronald Reagan’s dramatic offer of peace negotiations with Nicaraguan government followed weeks of intensive White House infighting, with Mike Deaver opposing any presidential gesture toward Nicaragua that might upset European allies before next month’s European trip. In the end, forces headed by Pat Buchanan won the battle, according to Evans & Novak, and now outside chance is conceded that Administration could get $14 million it wants for Contras. . . . At least liberal columnist Mary McGrory thinks so. Opponents of the covert war, who, as she describes it, “hate to see Uncle Sam bullying a small country” and who are “repelled by Contra atrocities,” fear their twenty-vote margin in the House won’t hold up. Mrs. McGrory was all shook up that Arturo Cruz, a former junta member, has joined the Contras.

Conservative fears that Faith Whittlesey’s public-liaison post in White House would be downgraded or neutered are dissipated by appointment of outspoken Civil Rights Commission staff director Linda Chavez to post. Mrs. Chavez, a Democrat, is switching parties. . . . Hierarchically, she will report to Pat Buchanan, who, it is revealed (it’s income-tax time), took a $325,- 000-a-year cut in pay to return to the White House. . . . Back to Mary McGrory, who, commenting on Jeane Kirkpatrick’s party switch a week earlier, says right-wingers are turned on by her because “she has shown them glimpses of the killer strain which they equate with greatness.”