An Embarrassment of Riches

One tongue-in-cheek explanation offered last fall for the bugging of the Democratic Party's Watergate headquarters was that the Committee for the Re-Election of the President had so much money that it had to dream up harebrained schemes to spend it. New evidence suggests that the thought was not altogether absurd. Nixon's finance committee reported last week that it had finished the campaign with an unprecedented $3.5 million surplus. Apparently, nobody could figure out how to use up the $50 million that had been collected. The question now becomes: How much imagination will the Republicans show in disposing of their surplus? In the interest of fair play, they might consider giving it to the Democrats to help them overcome a national party debt of $4.3 million. Well, it was just a thought. They also might dole out the money as a solatium to all those Republican Congressmen who lost in the last election--some, no doubt, because the Nixon juggernaut had gathered up almost all the Republican funds in their areas. Best yet, they could take part of the $3.5 million to study ways of improving the financing of U.S. elections.

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