Incumbency Is the Best Policy

Carter unveils a strategy to keep his office: use it

The cause was so worthy that there could be no criticism, but the timing was something that only a President can exploit. Ted Kennedy, in a speech at Washington's Georgetown University, complained that the Carter Administration's proffered $7 million in aid was inadequate to prevent starvation in Cambodia. The White House, however, had already called in TV cameras for a statement that President Carter would deliver in person less than two hours after Kennedy spoke: the Administration had rounded up not $7 million but $69 million to avert famine in that Southeast

Asian nation and to resettle Cambodian refugees in Thailand.

Sheer coincidence, said White House aides: Carter just happened to receive right then assurances from Phnom-Penh and Hanoi that the expanded aid would actually get through to hungry Cambodians. Well, maybe. But Carter's whole week demonstrated that he is acutely aware of the powers of an incumbent President and determined to use them in his contest with Kennedy for the Democratic nomination. Some other samples of his new assertiveness:

> Carter summoned the Democratic faithful to a Washington dinner that marked the unofficial launching of his reelection campaign. Those invited were told that their attendance would be considered an endorsement of the President for renomination. Almost 500 party powers showed up, including 109 Congressmen, a dozen Senators and a pride of Governors (Ella Grasso of Connecticut, Julian Carroll of Kentucky, Bruce King of New Mexico) and mayors (Edward Koch of New York City, Thomas Bradley of Los Angeles, Coleman Young of Detroit, Maynard Jackson of Atlanta). The Governors and mayors know quite well that Carter has at least another 15 months in which to approve or deny federal grants to their states and cities. Last week, for instance, Carter announced transportation grants totaling $750,000 to New Jersey, and, by coincidence or not, New Jersey

Governor Brendan Byrne attended the President's dinner. Still, there were notable absentees. None of the Democratic Senate leaders attended.

>The President made a major pitch for the women's vote by staging a White House rally for the Equal Rights Amendment, a cause Carter has long supported.

Nonetheless, he needs to repair his relations with feminist activists, who are unhappy over the resignation of Midge Costanza from the White House staff and the firing of Bella Abzug from a presidential advisory commission. So Carter turned out White House womanpower in full force: Lady Bird Johnson took the podium, as did Lynda Johnson Robb, and Amy Carter tripped in holding the President's granddaughter, ten-month-old Sarah Carter, in her arms. Rosalynn, whose appearances are being curtailed be cause she has seemed too assertive, nonetheless gave a warm welcome: ''The White House belongs to the people, and that means more than half of it belongs to women.''

> Carter resolved a foreign policy impasse by approving the sale of advanced U.S. arms to Morocco. The State Department had argued against the sale, contending that if Morocco's King Hassan II got American weapons, his opponents, the Polisario guerrillas, might solicit more help from the Soviet Union, posing the threat of another superpower confrontation in Africa. Carter instead bought the argument of National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and Defense Secretary Harold Brown that the U.S. could not afford the downfall of Hassan, a prominent friend in the Third World. An unspoken but very real consideration: coming after the overthrow of U.S.-supported autocrats in Iran and Nicaragua, the loss of Hassan would be a major embarrassment to the President's re-election campaign.

While Carter's show of White House muscle was impressive, some problems persist. The President is having difficulty filling top jobs in his Administration, in part because potential nominees are reluctant to commit themselves to a boss who may have only a bit more than a year in power. According to Washington rumor, such top businessmen as Henry Ford II, General Electric's Reginald Jones and Xerox's Peter McColough have turned down the post of Secretary of Commerce. Carter last week approved California Federal Judge Charles B. Renfrew as Deputy Attorney General. But Renfrew's formal nomination is being held up because Hispanics consider him unsympathetic. Carter now wants to couple Renfrew's appointment with the nomination of a Hispanic to another important post.

The President was shocked and set back when an earlier supporter, Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne, moved over to Kennedy's camp after a private Democratic poll showed him easily beating Carter in Illinois. George Dunne, the Cook County party chairman, also had talks with Byrne and said that Carter would get little help from local leaders. Byrne's switch will make it much tougher for Carter in the crucial Illinois primary March 18. Said Kennedy, who had phoned Byrne several times last week: ''I'm delighted.''

The Carter campaign also has a problem unusual for an incumbent President:

money. The President would like to begin 1980 with $5 million in the till. At the moment he has less than $1 million:

his re-election campaign has raised almost $3 million, but contrived to spend most of it. One bright spot for Carter: the surprising number of donations that are rolling in from prominent Republicans, who apparently will do just about anything to stop Kennedy.

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