Page 2
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1976
David S. Broder
Ford’s predicament a sign
of his lack of political vision
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. —
Here in the President’s home town
and almost anywhere else Republi
cans gather, there is general puz
zlement about the political predica
ment in which Jerry Ford finds him
self.
How in the world did a personally
popular fellow, who met his chal
lenger head-on and beat him in five
straight primaries before a loss, sud
denly find himself campaigning des
perately to avoid defeat in his home
state? How did a palpably honest
President, who has brought his party
back from its worst disgrace, find
himself trailing in the race for nomi
nation?
The answers to those questions —
offered by longtime friends of the
President in Grand Rapids, in Wash
ington and in the Republican organi
zation across the country — focus on
one central shortcoming. It is the
inability of Mr. Ford to define the
goals, the vision and the purposes of
his presidency in a way that gives
coherence to his administration and
to his campaign.
It is the same vacuum that made
this reporter comment last August,
at the time of Mr. Ford’s first an
niversary in office, that despite his
growing demand of the mechanics of
his job, despite the quality of his
Cabinet appointments, despite the
end of the Indo-China involvement
and the improvement in the
economy, he still seemed “a pro
visional President.”
That failure is described in many
ways by the President’s well-
wishers. A business executive says
over lunch, “I can’t think of a single
slogan he’s popularized in all this
time except the WIN button. And
that was stupid.’’
A high Republican official says,
“He comes across as a blob of good
intentions. There’s no pattern to it.”
If the central problem of both the
Ford presidency and the Ford cam
paign is his failure to provide a vision
of the future, then it is worth consid
ering in the light of today’s political
problems, the first critical decision
Mr. Ford made as President. Some
of his strongest supporters now
argue that the choice of Vice Presi
dent Rockefeller was a signal of prob
lems to come.
It is important to note that this
criticism does not come from right
wingers chronically embittered to
ward Rockefeller. Nor is it intended
to make Rockefeller the scapegoat
for all of Mr. Ford’s political prob
lems.
The criticism is directed at Mr.
Ford, not at Rockefeller. In its most
basic form, it says that when the new
President, a classic congressional
conservative, chose as his legatee for
the future leadership of the party
and the country as conspicuous an
advocate of activist government as
the four-term governor of New York,
he was telling the world that he had
no clear sense of his own political
purpose.
It was, this view holds, a naked
confession that Gerald Ford really
had no philosophy of government
and was ready to import one — no
matter how much at odds it seemed
with his own approach.
But there were also political con
sequences from the choice of Roc
kefeller that look more important in
retrospect than they did at the time.
The Rockefeller nomination gave the
sunbelt conservatives in the GOP
their first reason for unhappiness
with Mr. Ford, and that region pro
vided the base of what is still Ronald
Reagan’s constituency. Animus to
ward Rockefeller’s closest friend in
Washington, Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, has fed the Reagan
campaign.
The inability of the President to
“be presidential” and to stay above
politics is traceable, at least in part,
to the fact that the Vice President,
who normally handles the political
chores for an administration, has
been shelved. The dropping of Roc
kefeller from the 1976 ticket was, in
this view, not only a confession of the
major misjudgment involved in his
selection, but a serious handicap to
the President during this period of
political conflict.
Some of those who make this ar
gument now recall their support at
the time for an alternative candidate,
George Bush of Texas, then the Re
publican national chairman and now
the director of the Central Intelli
gence Agency. An organized effort
directed by Nebraska Republican
leader Richard L. Herman, was
mounted to persuade Mr. Ford to
take Bush.
If Bush were Vice President, his
backers now ask, would there have
been any excuse for a southern-
western rebellion against the admin
istration? Or would the first flicker of
support for Reagan have been snuf
fed out from the start?
Would the party regulars who had
worked closely with Bush as national
chairman have been as ready to
listen to the siren song of Reagan’s
appeal? Would Texas — whose pri
mary established the credibility of
Reagan’s insurgency — have denied
every single delegate to a President
who had picked a Texan as his
running-mate?
The questions are unanswerable.
But they are being asked — not by
the President’s critics but by some of
his strongest supporters. And they
fear— for reasons to be outlined in a
later column — that Mr. Ford has
yet to pay his biggest price for his
fateful vice presidential choice?
(c) 1976, The Washington Post
Company
Cbe Battalion
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Editor Jerry Needham
Managing Editor Richard Chamberlain
Photographer Steve Goble
The Speaker Reports i c ^?e cjurquoise^Slipy
By Bill Clayton
AUSTIN — During the past week
in Austin the three House commit
tees involved in seeking out ways to
put the brakes on runaway gas prices
in the State had the opportunity to
fill in the gaps in their information
about the price our consumers are
having to pay.
We received a great deal of infor
mation from a great number of
people involved in all aspects of the
situation.
Among those providing us with in
formation were spokesmen for con
sumer organizations, farmers and
ranchers and rural electric coopera
tives. Likewise we heard what the
petrochemical industry, the gas ser
vice companies and the pipeline
transmission companies had to say.
Wildcat producers, independent
producers, oil and gas associations,
major companies and royalty owners
were also heard.
The Public Utilities Commission,
the Governor’s Energy Advisory
Council, scientists and a liberal
sprinkling of other interested parties
were heard over a three day period.
As the hearings began, I asked the
30 lawmakers who were involved to
keep in mind that anything less than
a 10 per cent reduction in customer
utility bills would be of no conse
quence.
I reiterated that when we decide
on a course of action that we must
provide substantial benefits to the
consumer, but we must not erode
the State’s tax base nor must our
proposals have the effect of reducing
exploration and expansion of the gas
industry.
There is no doubt that we now
have a most substantial bloc of in
formation on the natural gas situa
tion in Texas.
Through the remainder of May
our committees will be including
this information into the data they
previously gathered. I have asked for
a report and recommendations from
each committee by early June.
With the cumulative information
we will then be in a position to de
termine if we have enough meat to
warrant asking for a special legisla
tive session.
The facts we were presented by
many of those testifying at the hear
ings had a sobering effect on those
who would like to roll back natural
gas prices. I think the message we
got was that cheap energy has be
come an extinct species.
We can’t resurrect that corpse.
What we in the Legislature are try
ing to do is put a sharp pencil to the
bottom line of utility costs and use
every means we have to help our
citizens pay the price that is going to
have to be paid.
Administration
summer seminar
to he held here
June 11 is registration deadline for
Texas A&M’s 10th academic ad
ministration seminar offering a con
centrated leadership-program to
new heads of Texas educational in
stitutions. This year’s workshop is
July 18-23, announced Dean of Edu
cation Dr. Frank W. R. Hubert.
Presidents of Texas institutions
submit nominations. Thirty-five par
ticipants are chosen for the seminar
fi om the ranks of new or prospective
presidents, vice presidents, deans,
chairmen or department heads.
They spend two days reviewing
needs and issues of Texas higher
education, then launch into refining
decision-making skills.
MANOR EAST MALL
PRICES FROM $6.00 — UP
10% AGGIE DISCOUNT WITH I.D. CARD fil
OPEN 11:00 A.M. DAILY W®
HAIR
by
THE VARSITY SHOP
HAIR CARE FOR GUYS & GALS
301 PATRICIA NORTHGATE 846-7401
BRYAN, TEXAS
CHARISMATIC TEACHING
SEMINAR
DR. HOBART FREEMAN
Dr. Freeman will be teaching the
“End-Time” message of Faith for
Healing, Deliverance and An
swers to Prayer.
DR. HOBART FREEMAN
Dates: May 26, 27, 28, & 29
Time: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, & Saturday-
7:30 P.M.
Dr. Freeman, Speaker
Saturday - 10:30 A.M.
Bruce Kinsey, Speaker
Location: Bryan Civic Auditorium
Coulter Drive
Bryan, Texas
^ s This For ^
Spirit of y 76
^ 'it.
Peniston Cafeteria
Open
Monday-Friday
Beginning May 31
For Cash Operation
This Summer
Breakfast 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Lunch 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
FREE
With Every $5.00 Purchase or More —
One Old-Fashioned Milk Bottle
FREE
With Every $25.00 Purchase or More —
One Old-Fashioned Milk Rack
DEPARTMENT OF FOOD SERVICES
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
“Quality First”
SPECIAL NOTICE
OPTIONAL BOARD PLAN
Summer students may dine on the board plan during the first session of
summer school at Texas A&M University. Each board student may dine
three meals each day except Sunday evening if the seven day plan is
elected, and three meals each day, Monday through Friday, if the five day
plan is preferred. Each meal is served in the Commons.
Fees for each session are payable to the Controller of Accounts, Fiscal
Office, Coke Building.
Board fees for each plan are as follows:
PLANS
Seven Day — $139.00
Five Day — $124.00
FIRST SESSION
May 31 through July 3
and July 6-7
Day students, including graduate students may purchase either
of the board plans.