Joe & the Administration

The ultimate responsibility for the conduct of all parts of the Executive Branch of the Government rests with the President of the U.S. That responsibility cannot be delegated to any other branch of the Government.

Behind this restatement of basic principle made by Dwight Eisenhower at his news conference '(see above) lies a developing theory of how the Administration should deal with Joe McCarthy. It will not try to clip an essential congressional right: examination of Government servants at any level of authority. But it will resist the abuse of this power by any congressional effort to horn in on the running of the Executive Branch.

The distinction may be tested in the case of a McCarthy crony, Robert Walter Scott McLeod, the State Department security officer who last week was deprived of his authority over D.O.S. personnel. McCarthy can call D.O.S. officials before his committee and demand to know why they diluted McLeod's power. But Joe will not be permitted to bully anyone into a reversal of the decision. Said President Eisenhower, when asked about the Mc-Leod case: the assignment of administrative officers is the responsibility of department heads--and that of no one else. McCarthy, who went charging about in high dudgeon on first hearing of the McLeod action, cooled off rapidly and said he expected that the State Department, in the normal course of procedure, would forward an explanation. Mild also was his answer to Defense Secretary Charles Wilson, who said McCarthy's charges of the Army's coddling Communists were nothing but "damn tommyrot." Wilson said he would not treat a waiter the way McCarthy treated Brigadier General Ralph Zwicker, and he added: "I always look down on people who are not polite to a waiter." Replied Joe: "I certainly hope Charlie Wilson and I don't have to waste time arguing about Fifth Amendment Communists."

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