Banner Graphic, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 October 1974 — Page 3

Tom Wicker

Ford takes long step toward ‘open presidency’

President Ford has sent a notable example, and taken a long step toward an "Open Presidency” by his appearance before a Congressional subcommittees precedent that may have much meaning for the future. But just two days before Ford's appearance Presidential “powers” are still unchecked and may be subject to political abuse. Ford had announced his intention to speak on what American citizens “individually and collectively" could do to fight inflation and conserve energy. The national television network news divisions decided that the address would have little news value and none of them scheduled live coverage for Ford’s ap-

To the Editor: Very few citizens will disagree with the fact that confidence in government officials has been going down hill. It is rdeed unfortunate that the 1972 elected president and vice-president resigned their high offices because they broke the laws of our country and were subject to indictment and prosecution. These facts have had an unfortunate impact upon many voters, especially some of the young voters who say, “why vote-all politicians are crooked.” I do not believe all politicians are dishonest. I believe that the majority of our elected officials. Democrats and Republicans, are honest. There is no question that some elected officials lack the degree of integrity and honesty desired, but we should not let the improper actions of former President Nixon or former Vice-President Agnew permanently tarnish our confidence in our form of democratic government. In my opinion. Respite its faults, we have the best system of government in the world and we all should strive to maintain and improve it. We can start by being participants in our governmental process, by evaluating all the facts and arriving at honest and unprejudiced conclusions, then making these conclusions known by forthright intelligent statements and by voting for the candidate of our choice. Former President Nixon was re-elected in 1972 by one of the largest majorities in the history of our country. As a result of such a majority. Nixon had a great responsibility to be a model of integrity and to provide honest and moral leadership He failed in his responsibility and many

pearance before a Future Farmers of America meeting in Kansas City. That is an editorial judgment that news executives are entitled to make-as they would have been entitled to make the opposite decision. But Ford refused to accept it and made formal request of the networks that they broadcast his speech in the prime evening hours. This was amateurish of the White House, for at least two reasons. One was that prime time on the National Broadcasting Company’s network was occupied by the third game of the World Series, a sporting event many Americans do not take lightly. The other was that, as the network news executives had suspected.

citizens feel hurt and betrayed, while others attempt to justify the actions of Nixon and his administration. These justifications surely are not based upon factual evidence but upon blind partisianship. It should be remembered that every one of the 38 members of the House Judiciary Committee. Democrats and Republicans alike, finally agreed that Nixon had committed an impeachable offense. In fact, the language of the impeachment resolutions was drafted by Republican members of the Committee, with the assistance of three conservative Democrat committee members who supported Nixon in 1972. It appeared that the majority of Republican Representatives in Congress would vote for impeachment, and the majority of Republican Senators would vote for Nixon’s removal as President. This fact led to Nixon’s resignation. Unfortunately, we may never know all of the facts because of President Ford’s pardon of Nixon before indictment or formal submission of additional evidence. The preservation of strong Democrat and Republican parties is essential to the promotion of a democratic government-a government based on selection by ballots and not bullet' We have the obligation to vote in order to preserve and strengthen our freedoms and Constitutional rights. Not the least of these freedoms is the pnviledge of voting for the candidate of our choice, irrespective of his or her political affiliation. Vote Nov 5. It is your privilege and your duty. Hubert K. Clodfelter

Ford did not have much to say; after the fuss he had made about obtaining time, his appearance was at best an anticlimax, at worst an annoyance to baseball fans. Advising Americans to plant vegetable gardens, seek bargains and drive slowly is a poor substitute even for Joe Garagiola, let alone Catfish Hunter. But aside from these White House fumbles, the plain fact is that the President was able to demand and get time from the networks, blanket all three of them for a period in the prime viewing hours, and impose what he had to say on the nation, even though able and experienced news executives, acting separately, had determined in advance that he had little to say that was newsworthy. Ford was able to do this, moreover, just three weeks to the day before a national election that he has been describing as a critical importance to the survival of the Republican Party. Even though his speech has relatively innocuous-even though it might have cost him some of the baseball vote-his appearance may well have had good political impact for Republicans either in its net effect or in particular localities. And it could have been an openly political speech, had Ford chosen to make it so. This is a Presidential “power” that no one wrote into the Constitution, or even “implied" in that document, and that has not been adequately studied or considered by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission or anyone else. It is the power to command a vast audience almost at will, and to appear before that audience in all the impressive roles a President can play-from manager of the economy to Commander-In-Chief. This “power” raises two problems of considerable gravity. It obviously gives a President (of either party) an enormous

The guess here is that President Ford has much more support with the American people than he has in the Congress, the press, or the universities. The popularity polls may not show it yet, and his policies on the economy and the Nixon pardon do not support it, but there is something about this man that makes people believe in him, even when they disagree with his decisions. His appearance before members of the House Judiciary Committee to explain why he pardoned former President Nixon helps explain the paradox. He didn't satisfy many members of the committee that his decision, and particularly the timing of his new action was right, but he satisfied even the members who thought he was wrong that he was honest and telling the truth. This is a big advance in Washington. It was long before argued by political cynics that cunning and devious leaders with good intentions do less damage than honest naive men, and it may be true. But after a decade of clever twisters at the top of the American government, Ford is a temporary relief, even if he’s wrong. The key word, of course, is “temporary". Personal honesty, good intentions, locker-room exhortations, and “WIN”buttons won’t solve the economic

advantage over his political opposition, as well as over the other branches and institutions of government, in molding public opinion. It magnifies a thousandfold what Theodore Roosevelt, long before television, called the “Bully Pulpit” of the Presidency. If a President can command the airwaves almost at will, moreover, broadcast journalism never will be able to

crisis but in dealing with the Nixon pardon, Ford at least tried to restore the missing sense of trust, which is essential to the resolution of all our other problems. The Ford contrast with Nixon and Johnson is startling. The tragedy of Vietnam and Watergate was not the original policies but the cover-ups. Johnson took the country into the war and Nixon into Wagergate by stealth, both deceiving and evading the Congress when they got in trouble. The comparison is unfair and the analogy inaccurate, but Ford, when he got in trouble on the pardon, at least had the gumption to face the opposition. Obviously, it was an easier problem, but Ford’s instinct was true. He decided not only to answer the questions of the House Judiciary Committee, but to appear before them, state his case, and answer their questions. In the process, he destroyed the outrageous Nixon claims of excessive “executive privilege," and set a precedent of Presidential accountability that may be much more important than what happens to Nixon. In the process, he expanded national television into the democratic process, not only on judging candidates, but on deciding basic issues of policy. Now we

reach the independence and equal Constitutional status with print journalism that it deserves, and that the people are entitled to expect of it. Presidents can’t command any newspaper to carry the texts of their speeches; and they should not be able to command the networks to broadcast the speeches. The best remedy would be for network news executives to exercise rigorous news

have not only a “question hour” between the President, the Congress, and through television, with the people. From Ford’s point of view, this historic appearance in the dock of the Congress and before a national television audience was a brilliant political decision, all the more so because it was probably not calculated, but came as a natural response to serious questions from his old colleagues in the House Of Representatives. He didn’t have to go to Capitol Hill. The basic issue had been settled. He had pardoned Richard Nixon, and nobody questioned his right to do so. The only questions were whether he had made a deal with Nixon on the pardon, and whether his judgment was right on timing it before Nixon was indicted or convicted. There was no “deal,” he said, and he pardoned Nixon before indictment or conviction because he thought a long Nixon trial would divide and tear up the country for over a year. He wanted to end the controversy and get on to the questions of the future on wages, prices, trade, balance of payments and peace. Well, maybe his judgment was wrong, for by pardoning Nixon before indictment or conviction, he didn't end the Watergate controversy but revived it. Nevertheless,

judgment on every Presidential attempt to use the air waves, and to reject all such attempts that in their news judgment are unworthy. Practically speaking, however, it is not easy for the networks to turn down a President who wants to go on the air, particularly if he says he intends to speak on “National Security” matters. Nor is it easy to ascertain in advance if such a claim is valid.

he insisted that a struggle in the courts and press would have diverted the country from its serious problems at home and abroad, that, anyway, Nixon had resigned "under shame and disgrace,” and that, by agreeing to the pardon, Nixon had conceded his guilt. The way Ford said this, however, was probably the main thing for the Judiciary Committee and the television audience. He was, in his appearance, his manner, and his answers absolutely the opposite of Nixon. He was not ducking the Congress. He was there in the committee room. He was not invoking “executive privilege.” He was not fighting the Congress. He was courteous and even respectful of his questioners. “That is correct, sir.” “My information is different, but that is a fair question, sir.” Did he think the committee should call General Haig and other White House types? That was not for him to say, he said that was up to the Judiciary Committee. So you can say Jerry Ford is wrong on prices and wages, and wrong on pardoning Nixon too soo, and silly to spin around the country raising funds for the Republicans at chicken dinners when he is needed back in Washigton, but he proved in the Nixon pardoning hearings that he is not to be underestimated.

\ ®l)c I5flnner-(&rap()ic 2A TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1974 < > Letter to the editor Not all politicians dishonest

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James Reston Something in Ford that makes him believable

William Buckley Firm stand needed on exiles visiting Cuba

One is greatly moved by the Cuban Americans who see it coming, and are heartsick at the prospect of it. They have much to learn from Yugoslav Americans, and Polish Americans, and Czechoslovak Americans whose gestures are reduced to an annual parade, and who are not even conspicuous in the ranks of those who demand a policy of firmness towards the Soviet Union. It is almost certain now that it is only a matter of time before relations between the United States and Cuba are “normalized.” Normalized is here defined as: we will desist from doing anything at all that is inconvenient to Cuba, and Cuba will continue to do exactly as Cuba desires to do with respect to us. and other countries in the hemisphere. To be sure, she may promise to stop

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“exporting ’ her revolution. There are those who will remember that Maxim Litvinov promised to stop doing that, extending his hand on it to the country squire in the White House. The notion that the Soviet Union would actually disestablish its Comintern because Litvinov promised Roosevelt that it would, is the kind of thing one recounts as a joke at Leninist bars, after the third vodka. The most intensive activities of the Comintern followed the Litvinov pact and included the liquidation of Trotsky. It is true that the Communists are influenced by reality, and the stock of Cuban Communisn is riding pretty low in Latin America. After 15 years of Cuban Communism, sugar is rationed. It reminds one of the hard observation about what would happen if the Communists took over the Sahara Desert. Answer: Nothing-for 50years. Then there would be a shortage of sand. There is a shortage of everything in Cuba except bombast. Particularly there is a shortage of human freedom. The emigration from Cuba matches that from any country in the history of the century. And it is these men and women, who were promised by President Kennedy at a blubbery session in Miami in 1963 that one day their country would be free again, who feel now the anticipatory pain, the needle of the diplomatic punctilio that will officially shatter their dreams. But one does wonder whether there is anyone in the Ford Administration working on a quid pro quo? For instance: -There are thousands upon thousands ot Cubans who are now United States citizens, who would like to visit their relatives in Cuba. These are Americans bv law But in many cases, the Cuban

government, through a variety of representatives, has said that it does not recognize their foreign citizenship. That they are guilty of crimes against Cuba, and subject to arrest if they come in to Cuba. Here, surely, the United States should be unbending. If we have relations with Cuba of a normal kind, we cannot expect that Cuba would entertain firebrand revolutionaries going over there with the dark purpose of introducing a little freedom into Cuba. But we should insist on de jure’ recognition of the fact of UJS. citizenship if granted to a former Cuban national. -The investments in Cuba of American individuals and American companies are substantially lost, written off. But a gesture is in order. Such a gesture might be devised from a special sugar price, calculated to return to these compan'es at least a part of the value of their confilflted investments. -There is no reason, at a moment when we are withholding Most Favored Nation priviledges from the Soviet Union because of its restrictions in migration, to fail to insist on symmetrical concessions by Castro Cub. It is, as things stand, a capital offense to attempt to flee Cuba without a special license. Whether we won our point or not, surely a dramatization of it at the bargaining table will on the one hand put pressure on Castro, and on the other, bring a sense of purpose, and relief, to the Cuban Americans whose interests we have so neglectfully watched over during our long retreat from the Monroe Doctrine.

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