The Quiet Counterforce

THE PRESIDENCY

Even in politics, every force must have a counterforce; and Oregon's Congressman Al Ullman, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, is emerging as the locus of the power opposing Gerald Ford.

He is not as loud as Senator Henry Jackson or as brilliant as Senator Hubert Humphrey or as tough as House Democratic Caucus Chairman Phillip Burton. But he has a measure of real power in his committee chairmanship, and he talks quiet good sense in the ocean of babble. At 61 he looks 45, and he is three years along in a second marriage. He was once a high school teacher and then a builder. Now he is Baker, Ore.'s answer to Grand Rapids, Mich.

For the past several weeks Ullman has been about this town morning, noon and night, his rounded features looking out from newspaper pages and invading American living rooms via Face the Nation, 60 Minutes and almost every evening newscast. He seems to be running his own small presidency, but without Air Force One or the limousines.

His influence comes from consulting, not ordering; he understands that he must get along to some degree with almost everybody, including Jerry Ford. He has opened up the Ways and Means Committee to the outside world, named subcommittees to spread authority and credit. His committee has come up with a tax-rebate bill to counter Ford's, a bill to stop Ford's tax on imported oil, and Ways and Means is hammering out its own energy measure with allocation provisions and a new gas tax. Al Ullman stands right at the crossroads of the national crisis. The White House watches him intently. What program is finally imposed on this nation probably will be rooted more in the characters of Ford and Ullman than any other two men.

They are almost as much alike as they are different. Neither wants to die on the ramparts. Both know they can talk to each other any time. But both also believe, as Ullman puts it, "there is a time to talk and a time to let the process work." A month ago, they were talking.

First on the phone. Then Ford had congressional leaders down to outline his economic package.

As Ullman went out the door, the President stopped him. "We ought to sit down and discuss this," he said. A few days later Ullman went unnoticed in the side door of the White House for an hour's conversation with his old Hill colleague. Ford went over his program. Ullman said he just could not agree that Ford's way was right. There ought to be quotas, a gas tax, a 90-day delay on the import fee. He had given all that serious thought, the President responded, but he had decided the other route was best. Ullman said he could understand but he still would have to oppose. And Ford said that he could understand Ullman's position but he, Ford, was going to push ahead. Warm handshake.

Ford and Ullman were taking the measure of each other--friendly but opposed, signaling without saying. Ullman came out feeling that Ford was not anchored to his positions ("He hadn't finally disagreed"); was ready to compromise; needed some encouragement from the Hill, not poisonous opposition.

He expects there will be a call from the President, or he will make one to the White House. "I'll just say, 'Mr. President, we have demonstrated we can move. Here's our program. Hopefully, we can avoid a confrontation.' "

"We are in a time of change in our constitutional procedure," says Ullman, sitting at his desk. "Watergate and all pushed more responsibility for policy onto Congress. The President is personally very strong; he has just made a mistake. He is on the wrong course." Why? Well, Ford did not deal much with economics on the Hill and then he was not subjected to the tempering process of national election, muses Ullman. The next best thing is to use the legislative process to the fullest, and that is what Al Ullman is all about.

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