Lance: Wounding Carter

Some lasting damage from a mishandled departure

His eyes were tinted red, and the lines beneath them were more pronounced than usual. As he strode toward the narrow lectern in the Executive Office Building, he forced only a slight smile. In rare defeats in the past Jimmy Carter has kept himself grimly in control. But as he announced Budget Director Bert Lance's resignation last week, Carter twice almost lost his composure. Voice choking, eyes misting with tears, the President paused, bit his lip and declared: "Bert Lance is my friend."

The way in which the Lance affair was resolved revealed both laudable qualities and some disquieting ones in the still unfolding character of the nation's often baffling President. As he faced his first major crisis, Carter proved more compassionate and less cold-blooded than many people had expected. He manfully, if incorrectly, blamed only himself for the Washington travail of his former colleague in Georgia state government, and he showed no bitterness toward either Lance's sometimes irresponsible critics or an unrelenting, though generally accurate press.

Carter finds winning friends difficult, which may be one reason he valued Lance so highly. He was obviously determined to send Lance back to Georgia with the highest recommendation that the President of the U.S. could give. The press conference was a moving, human performance. Yet, by insisting so vehemently that all of the many sharp criticisms of Lance's manipulations as a go-go Georgia banker had "been proven false and without foundation," Carter displayed a surprisingly irrational and stubborn refusal to face facts adverse to his friend and to his own reputation for cool judgment and high ethics.

Repeatedly, Carter showed a sentimental streak and a moral blindness in assessing what his friend had done. The man who had campaigned against influential "big shots" and promised to appoint only top aides who met a Caesar's-wife standard of honesty could not bring himself to criticize one who had obviously fallen short of that ideal. Said Carter, ignoring much evidence: "Nothing that I have heard or read has shaken my belief in Bert's ability or his integrity."

This insistence that Lance had done no wrong increased the puzzlement of old Washington hands about Jimmy Carter. Many members of the Washington establishment still resent that he made them an issue in the campaign, often with moralistic promises to do better than they had ("I'll never lie to you"). These legislators and bureaucrats are not displeased to see Carter set back, but many of them also worry that his mishandling of the Lance affair shows that he is more isolated than is good for the country.

Another President might have demanded weeks ago that Lance quit. By letting the crisis drag on, Carter raised troubling questions about his instincts as a President and politician. Before making a decision, he hears out advocates with a variety of often conflicting viewpoints. But six of the seven aides closest to him are fellow Georgians. They are hardworking, shrewd and bright, but new to Washington. Notably, the one non-Georgian in the inner circle, Margaret ("Midge") Costanza, the former vice mayor of Rochester, was also the only one to come out publicly against Lance.

White House Aide Hamilton Jordan demonstrated concern early in the Administration about the problem of Jimmy Carter's isolation. According to Los Angeles Times Reporter Robert Shogan's new book Promises to Keep, Jordan, in a memo to Carter last March, noted that his advisers from down home tended to try to guess what he wanted to hear instead of giving him frank, sometimes critical analyses. Not much has changed over the months. Only in the last few days did Carter begin paying attention to House Speaker Tip O'Neill and to Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, who advised him to let Lance go rather than endanger his legislative program in Congress.

The Lance affair has been diverting Carter's attention from his many other problems. His foreign policy is at a critical juncture and in much jeopardy. His hopes for engineering a peace in the Middle East have been further frustrated by the fighting between the Israelis and Palestinians in Lebanon; his attempts to forge a new strategic arms limitation agreement with the Soviets appear stalled (see THE WORLD). His one breakthrough has been the Panama Canal treaty, but conservative opposition to it has been building. Hoping to counter some of the setbacks, the White House announced last week that Carter will leave in late November for an eleven-day whirlwind tour of Venezuela, Brazil, Nigeria, India, Iran, France, Poland and Belgium. Overseas trips are a familiar respite for a President in trouble at home. Little of substance can be accomplished on such a fast trip beyond mending a few fences and providing Americans with the spectacle of a President being welcomed by cheering crowds abroad.

In domestic matters, Carter was so distracted by the Lance affair that he had to put off his plans to submit his tax-reform proposals, which he had planned to send to Congress next week; they will be delayed for at least another week. Meanwhile, an emboldened Senate was knocking holes in Carter's energy program, which had sailed through the House almost intact. The Senate Finance Committee dumped Carter's proposed penalty taxes on gas-guzzling cars in favor of its own bill to ban them outright, starting in 1980 with those getting less than 16 m.p.g. Next, despite an all-out Administration effort, the Senate voted 52 to 46 against killing legislation that would end federal price controls on new natural gas-supplies. These battles, however, are far from finished, and still could be won by Carter when House and Senate conferees meet to agree on a final form for the program.

All these problems were aggravated by the Lance affair. Republicans insisted that it had done lasting damage to Carter. Outlining the main themes of the G.O.P. attack on him in 1978 and 1980, National Chairman Bill Brock declared: "There doesn't seem to be a game plan or a theme. Foreign policy lacks coordination. Domestic policy has yet to have a pattern. His proposals are rhetoric, not specifics." House Republican Leader John Rhodes complained that "somehow this Administration has, in a very short time, appeared to lose its moral nerve." Senate G.O.P. Leader Howard Baker was preparing what he called his "now-and-then speech--how it was then, when he came into office, and how it is now."

Carter acknowledged that his credibility has been damaged "to some degree." But Democratic political pros argued that he mostly cut his losses with Lance's resignation. Presidential ups and downs are easily exaggerated; more important, at this point in Carter's presidency, most people are still rooting for him and want to respond to his spirit. He demonstrated remarkable resources as a politician all through the campaign, and he probably can bounce back from the Lance episode. But some of the tarnish will remain. Brought down to earth by suggestions of cronyism and a double standard for friends, Jimmy Carter will find it harder in the future to lay claim to a special kind of morality.

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