Hostility from Left and Right

Both in quantity and quality, the case against Nelson Rockefeller was disintegrating last week. Not only were the arguments thinner and shriller as an assortment of hostile witnesses appeared before the House Judiciary Committee, but Congressmen--Democrats and Republicans alike--were nervous about not having a Vice President at a time when the nation's economic troubles are deepening. Said Republican Pete Mc-Closkey: "The sooner Rockefeller can get over there, the more likely it will be that we'll get leadership and action out of this Administration, and both parties want that."

With this in mind, committee members heard witnesses with impatience, since they now consider Rocky's confirmation a foregone conclusion. Joseph Rauh spoke for the Americans for Democratic Action, a national organization of some 65,000 members, almost all Democrats, who lobby for liberal to leftish measures. Rauh insisted that Rocke feller was unfit for office because of his wealth. "A vote for confirmation," said Rauh, "is a vote for a [potential] President who will never spend a day with out a serious conflict of interest and whose White House will exist under a dark cloud of suspicion."

The Massacre. Asked Committee Chairman Peter Rodino: "You say it doesn't make any difference whether we study this until doomsday. Rockefeller is precluded?" Rauh said that that is what he meant. Rodino later remarked:

"We call it a democracy, and we en courage people to accumulate wealth. It would be inconsistent to say at some point that they no longer have the right to serve."

Arthur O. Eve, a black New York assemblyman who had urged the impeachment of Rockefeller for his role in Attica, testified that the former Governor was responsible for "engineering the massacre. There is no question in my mind that the Governor was aware of every decision and step taking place." Asked repeatedly about Attica, Rockefeller said that he made an initial error by not permitting the guards to retake the prison before negotiations began. At that time, the guards were unarmed. In previous testimony, Rockefeller agreed that he should not have allowed armed state troopers to attack the rebels when negotiations bogged down.

Dr. Ada Ryan of the National Right to Life Committee accused Rockefeller of another kind of massacre. "In his quest for population control at any cost," she complained, "he has helped to bring about the destruction of a whole segment of our society: the unborn." Lyn

Marcus, national chairman of the National Caucus of Labor Committees, went even farther into fantasy. By supporting birth control, said Marcus, Rockefeller has made a "criminal commitment to genocide accompanied by a commitment to reduce massively the standards of living of the world's industrialized sector to levels matching those in the Third World." This was too much even for one of Rocky's sternest critics on the committee. "I find your statement so excessive and so extreme that it is counterproductive," said California Democrat Jerome Waldie.

New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug tried to pump some life into the hearings by returning to the subject of Rocky's wealth. "The nominee," said Abzug, "can no more divest himself of his heritage, his interests, his interconnection with the dominant corporations that control our economy than he can divest himself of his skin." But Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm sent a statement to the committee that carried more weight. While acknowledging some of the objections to Rockefeller, she wrote: "I should like to pose a question to all of those accusers. Where in government today can we find, yes, even among ourselves, in this very House, those politicians who are pure and above reproach? Who among us could withstand the grueling and awesome process under the 25th Amendment? Let us not establish a standard for this nominee to which we ourselves could not be subjected."

By the time the week's testimony was concluded, a majority of committee members appeared to agree with Chisholm. If not Rockefeller, they pondered, then who? If Rocky were rejected, President Ford might turn to a more partisan, controversial figure like Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater. Months of investigations and deliberations would follow, accompanied, doubtless, by even more acrimonious debate. Whatever their reservations about Rockefeller, he was looking better and better.

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