First Billy, Then Teddy

By Ed Magnuson

Carter deals with his two problems as the convention nears

In the final days before the Democratic Party was to select its candidate for President, Jimmy Carter moved impressively on two fronts to tighten his grip on the nomination. He cooled the uproar over his brother Billy with an impressive full-hour prime-time press conference and with a 99-page report to a Senate investigating subcommittee. At the same time, his aides were negotiating pre-convention compromises with Challenger Edward Kennedy's camp that reduced the danger of a grand old Democratic donnybrook this week in Madison Square Garden.

To be sure, neither of the threats had vanished. With investigations into the Billy affair under way in the Senate and the Justice Department, there was no quick way for the President to end the controversy over his brother's dealings as an agent for Libya. Yet the besieged President confidently handled barbed questions from reporters. He was alternately humane ("Billy is a colorful personality. I love him and he loves me"), defiant ("I don't have authority to order Billy to do something. It is not illegal for him to make a trip to Libya") and presidential ("I'm sworn by oath to uphold. . . the laws of our nation. If any member of my family should violate those laws, then I'm charged with the responsibility . . . to see that the law is carried out").

While Carter's spirited defense added little to what was already known, it did persuade millions of television viewers that there was nothing illegal or unethical in the way he had handled the affair of Billy and his Libyan friends. Republican Senator Robert Dole, a member of the investigating subcommittee, declared: "If it all turns out just like it is in the [President's] report, we can all endorse the report and go home." But Dole made it clear that he still had some questions to ask.

The President's presentation did not dispel the key issue of whether or not he had shown good judgment. Too many questions remained: 1) Why did he not do more to get Billy to break his Libya connection? 2) If Billy then persisted, why did the President not simply disavow his brother's connection with Libya? 3) At a time when he knew that Billy's work for Libya was under investigation by the Justice Department, why did he use Billy as a back-channel route to try to get Libya to lean on Iran to free the American hostages held in Tehran?

The President conceded that he had thought that Billy might have been trying to make money from his Libyan friends. But he insisted that he did not learn until July 15 of this year that Billy had received any money from his Libya connections. Yet during the many months that Carter wondered whether Billy had a financial motive in courting Libya, the President apparently never even phoned his brother to discuss the matter. Upon learning of the payments, he failed to ask Billy what he had done with the cash.

The President's deference to family sensibilities popped up again in his explanation of using Billy in the hostage crisis. The idea had been Rosalynn's, he conceded, adding: "I think it completely appropriate for Rosalynn to have thought about how we could get the hostages released and to have called Billy to see if he thought he could possibly help." When Billy proved willing, Rosalynn told Jimmy, and the President asked National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to urge Billy to set up a meeting with Libya's top diplomat in the U.S. Billy did so, but even before the meeting was held, Libya publicly urged Iran to release the hostages.

The President admitted that this use of his brother "may have enhanced Billy's stature in the minds of the Libyans," thereby promoting rather than discouraging his foreign-agent enterprise. "That may have been bad judgment," he said. "I did what I thought was best for our country and best for the hostages, and I believe that's exactly what Billy was doing."

Carter convincingly argued that his younger brother had never tried to wield any influence over him on U.S. policy toward Libya. There was, in fact, no evidence that this policy had changed. To seal off presidential families from influence seekers, Carter proposed a new regulation forbidding anyone in the Executive Branch to deal with the President's family "under any circumstances that create either the reality or the appearance of improper favor or influence." Carter would have been more on target if he had simply ordered everyone in his family to avoid any contact with officials that would raise questions of impropriety.

While the President was trying to explain away the Billy problem, Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti raised another issue. He admitted that he had learned from "highly sensitive" intelligence reports as early as April that Billy might be about to receive cash from Libya--but did not tell anyone until nearly two months later. By then investigators had learned from other sources about the payments, actually made in late December and April. Civiletti contends that telling his top aides, even though they have high-security clearances, might have revealed the secret source of information. The subcommittee and Civiletti's own Justice Department are expected to look into the propriety of his actions.

Late in the week, to add to Carter's difficulties, the Washington Star disclosed that Ruth Carter Stapleton, the President's evangelist sister, had "visited the Middle East in January at the expense of an American businessman who 'waved the White House flag' in making business contacts there, according to State Department sources." The businessman was identified as Sam Bamieh of Palo Alto, Calif. Bamieh, who traveled with Stapleton as part of a group, was said to have paid $3,000 of her expenses. White House Press Secretary Jody Powell was quoted as saying that Stapleton felt she had been exploited by Bamieh. The White House knew about the trip in advance. Afterward, Stapleton was said to have discussed it with the President but did not mention Middle East policy.

How much his family's problems had hurt the President's chances for renomination would be revealed this week at the convention. Like rival princes, Carter and Senator Kennedy were exchanging emissaries and negotiators all week long, trying to work out compromises and hoping to avoid an eruption that would further damage an already badly riven party.

Negotiators for the two adversaries finally signed a statement that declared: "Whatever differences we may have, they pale in comparison to our common differences with the Republicans and their nominee. Whoever is on our ticket, we are determined to conclude our convention united behind our nominees." A noble sentiment, but whether the thin veneer of good will that covered it would endure the strains of the in the Garden remained to be seen.

With reporting by Johanna McGeary

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