Allen's Allies

Friends throw him a lunch

It was part pep rally, part gesture of defiance. One day last week, 415 friends of embattled National Security Adviser Richard Allen gathered for a $30-a-per-son lunch in his honor at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. Master of Ceremonies Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation, praised Allen as "a beacon of hope and light for all of us."

M. Stanton Evans, a contributing editor of Human Events magazine, drew cheers when he noted that Allen had not joined "the George Bush apparatus" in the 1980 G.O.P. primaries, and added about Allen: "This makes you wonder how he got a job in this Administration." Reflecting the feeling that the press had vastly exaggerated Allen's alleged conflicts of interest, the Rev. Norris W. Sydnor, a Baptist minister from near by in Maryland, used the invocation to declare: "We think about the free press and sometimes the threat that it has on our freedom in America."

One oddity: of the six supporters who signed the 1,400 invitations, only Feulner attended. The no-shows: Brewer Joseph Coors, Financier Justin Dart, former Treasury Secretary William Simon, the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell and Columnist William Buckley. Dart was in the hospital, and the others said they had previous engagements.

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