Eisenhower adopted the military model, which emphasizes the importance of the Chief of Staff in handling all of the paperwork and preliminary decisions. With rare exceptions, anyone who spoke with Eisenhower had to have Adams' prior approval. Adams took his role as Chief of Staff very seriously; with the exception of Cabinet members and certain NSC advisors, all requests for access to Eisenhower had to go through his office. This alienated traditional Republican Party leaders.
Adams was one of the most powerful men in Washington during the six years he served as Chief of Staff. Because of Eisenhower's highly formalized staff structure, it appeared to many that he had virtual control over White House staff operations and domestic policy (a 1956 article in Time entitled "OK, S.A." advanced this perception). The extent of internal strife between strong-willed personalities was chronicled in his 1961 memoir First Hand Report. Among the heated conflicts within the Eisenhower administration were the best method to handle flamboyant personalities such as U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, whom Adams and Eisenhower decided to torpedo when McCarthy started attacking the U.S. Army. Adams was a frequent broker of such controversies. Adams was willing to make the partisan comments that Eisenhower stood aloof from, thus making Adams the main target of the Democrats. Adams generally stood with the liberal wing of the Republican Party, in opposition to the conservative wing of Taft and Barry Goldwater. Eisenhower often dependent upon him for the evaluation candidates for top-level appointments. Adams handled much of the patronage and appointments that Eisenhower found boring. He fired people who had to go.[4]
Movie critic Michael Medved wrote a book on Presidential aides called The Shadow Presidents, that stated Adams was probably the most powerful chief of staff in history. He told of a joke that circulated around Washington in the 1950s. Two Democrats were talking and one said "Wouldn't it be terrible if Eisenhower died and Nixon became President?" The other replied "Wouldn't it be terrible if Sherman Adams died and Eisenhower became President!"
He had a reputation for negativity, endorsing many submissions with a simple "No". This caused him to become known as "The Abominable No Man.