One Baker aide said: "We are dealing with people who don't know the first thing about how a democracy works.

Baker aides say privately that, while the convention may have helped consolidate the Republican base, it was in many ways "a wasted opportunity."

Calls from Baker aides, Mr. Solomon said, were no substitute.

"When he went over to Treasury it was his declaration of substance," a Baker aide says.

"He wanted to throw up," a Baker aide recalls.

"Kissinger thinks that we're all a bunch of novices here and have no sense of history," said one Baker aide.

Baker aides now concede that while those who wrote the speech knew exactly where they stood on Israel, they forgot who was reading it.

When we got here," said a Baker aide, "every single person told us that this building had the most miserable Congressional relations possible.

"I think if you were alive in 1917 things would have looked just as confusing," said one Baker aide.

A Republican strategist with close ties to the chief of staff said some Baker aides are saying in private, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

One Baker aide said: "We are dealing with people who don't know the first thing about how a democracy works.

Baker aides say privately that, while the convention may have helped consolidate the Republican base, it was in many ways "a wasted opportunity."

Calls from Baker aides, Mr. Solomon said, were no substitute.

"When he went over to Treasury it was his declaration of substance," a Baker aide says.

"He wanted to throw up," a Baker aide recalls.

"Kissinger thinks that we're all a bunch of novices here and have no sense of history," said one Baker aide.

Baker aides now concede that while those who wrote the speech knew exactly where they stood on Israel, they forgot who was reading it.

When we got here," said a Baker aide, "every single person told us that this building had the most miserable Congressional relations possible.

"I think if you were alive in 1917 things would have looked just as confusing," said one Baker aide.

A Republican strategist with close ties to the chief of staff said some Baker aides are saying in private, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"