Two Sharp Slaps

"My motto towards the Congress is communication, conciliation, compromise and cooperation."

So promised Gerald Ford in his first presidential address. In part because of Ford's failures to practice his four Cs, his old friends on Capitol Hill Ig^Vrvr)' is overrode his vetoes of twc V" ^~V-, ^ ning margins. The first veto involved amendments to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act that would give citizens easier access to Government documents. Only 58 members of Congress--31 hi the House and 27 hi the Senate--stood with the President.

Ford's second veto was of a bill to extend the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for one year, provide $851 million for programs to aid the handicapped and transfer the administration of the act's services to the office of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Here the margins were even more impressive. By 398 to 7 in the House and 90 to 1 in the Senate, Congress upheld the measure over the President's objection.

The bipartisan slaps at the White House reflect a newly independent and increasingly sour, belligerent mood hi Congress as well as Ford's own ineptness. Carelessly, he had not consulted the Republican leadership nor had he lobbied old colleagues for his vetoes. "If the President expects to have his vetoes sustained, he has to make a definite case for them," said House G.O.P. Leader John Rhodes. From the other side of the aisle, Majority Leader Tip O'Neill was more acid: "Since the day he commuted Nixon, he hasn't done anything right."

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