"The notion that low-wage earners have gotten a big cut - it simply isn't so," says Michael Mussa, a former Reagan adviser.

Criticizing the deal, a Reagan adviser says, "This Administration will not negotiate with barbarians or terrorists."

"Intellectually, I have no problem with federalizing programs like Medicaid," said Mr. Williamson, the former Reagan adviser.

And yet he scarcely knew the man himself, Reagan advisers say.

Many Reagan advisers have claimed a deal was never close.

Sending the Russian Government lots of money could ease the pressure to downsize the military, argues Mr. Feldstein, the former Reagan adviser.

"Gates's problem is that he cannot say, 'I don't know anything about that' to anybody," a Reagan adviser said.

Michael Deaver, a Reagan adviser for two decades, "caught a bad case of Potomac fever."

Mr. Anderson, the former Reagan adviser, believes Mr. Harrington's views are "largely irrelevant today."

Prosecuting a former Reagan political adviser, Lyn Nofziger, on charges stemming from the Wedtech scandal.