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Even Baker admits that he has not been "exactly the best father" to his own children. The portrait that Jim and Susan Baker paint is of a man obsessed with his job -- an "efficient workaholic," as Baker describes himself. "The idea was to make your mark," he says. "Don't indulge in a lot of introspection. Just get on with it." Time with his family remains scarce. "I'd like more giggle time with him," says Susan. "I'd give anything for a month off with him. But that's not in the cards. And yes, that's a good part of why I've become so involved in my own things." Susan Baker is an advocate for the homeless and a partner in the crusade against sexually explicit rock lyrics. She speaks often of the power of prayer: the secret, she has said, "is to integrate prayer into your life. It's not quote-unquote religious, and there's nothing pious about it. It's more like, 'Help, God, I'm having a fit.' "
Susan Baker is not the only one in the family who gets down. "Jimmy gets depressed whenever he faces the prospect of having to return to practicing law," says Phil Uzielli, Baker's closest friend from his Princeton days. "He craves the action. He was down for a brief moment this year before Bush throttled Dukakis in the second debate. I remember him saying, 'Right now, I don't care who wins. I just want the thing to be over. I guess I may be going back to the law after all.' "
Reagan saved him from the law in 1980 by offering him a position as "senior adviser" in his campaign. "What kind of a title is that?" said Baker at the time. "It's nothing." But he took it, and that was all the edge he needed. Into second-rate company, Baker brought a first-rate mind. He quickly became integral to the Reagan operation, and immediately after the election was named White House chief of staff.
Reagan's longtime pal Ed Meese still needed work, so a troika was born. Baker, Meese and Michael Deaver were each granted equal access to the President. Only gradually did Baker aggregate power to himself. Along the way, though, he gained something less desirable: deep mistrust from right-wing conservatives. They were most enraged by Baker's efforts to increase revenues and cut defense spending to pare the ballooning budget deficit. Reagan didn't much care for Baker's view either. At one point, as the fiscal 1983 budget was being crafted, Baker urged Reagan merely to slow defense spending. In a pivotal confrontation, the President removed his glasses and glowered at his aide. "If that's what you believe," said Reagan, "then what the hell are you doing here?"
An ideologue might have fled. A pragmatist and political junkie could only hang in and seek a change in venue. Shortly after Reagan's re-election in 1984, Treasury Secretary Don Regan suggested that he and Baker swap jobs, a move that proved disastrous for the White House but enhanced Baker's reputation.
Reagan has called Regan's tenure as chief of staff a major mistake, while Baker went on to three major triumphs. The tax-reform act, the Plaza accord on the dollar, and the U.S.-Canada trade agreement were all wily combinations of indirection and hardball politics.