European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 01, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 the stars and stripes Tom Wicker saturday october 1, 1977 Carter s journey May ease the controversy president Carter s 11-Day tour of eight nations in South America Africa Asia and Europe probably was not planned As an escape from the rising tide of trouble that now reaches about to his Knees. But the trip May help a Little. Carter s National Security adviser zbig Niew Brzezinski said the foreign visits had been in the planning stage for months since Long before the Bert Lance Contro Versy erupted. He gave moreover a plausible rationale for the trip As a whole and for each country to be visited. Particularly because of the groundwork done for him in Africa and South America by . Ambassador Andrew Young. Carter planned late fall visits to , Brazil and Nigeria seem timely. The scheduled Stop in Paris might be open to criticism on grounds that it will come Only three months before France s important parliamentary elections French president discard d Estwing could be Given an important lift by the rare Opportunity of playing Host to an american president at such a time. On the whole there s no reason to take the announcement of Carter s trip at much less than face value. It s True that he said before taking office that he did not intend to travel abroad in his first year concentrating instead on pressing Domestic prob lems. But the year will be nearly up when Carter takes off on nov. 12. And no one would deny that he s put much time and Energy into Domestic affairs since Jan. 20.nevertheless, a world tour by an Ameri can president is not an everyday occur rence. Carter can be sure of huge crowds everywhere he goes and no doubt his reception at All stops will be warm enough to make him momentarily forget say. The William f. Buckley Senate finance committee s demolition Job on his Energy program. More important Carter s Progress abroad is guaranteed to dominate head lines and television screens Here at Home for 10 valuable Days. Americans seem to get a collective boost from the mob scene that usually Greet their presidents in places like new Delhi and it s predictable that Carter will come Home from his trip standing higher in the polls than when he went away. Sometimes presidents plan it that Way remember Richard Nixon s Middle East trip in 1974? Carter May not have done so this time but the chances Are that by late november hell need any kind of helping hand he can get. Even a partial listing of his mounting troubles is  Lance affair in particular May not be finished. Not Only Are several investigations of Lance himself pending but the re publicans obviously scent Carter s blood too. In remarks prepared for delivery to the Commonwealth club in san Francisco House minority Leader John j. Rhodes May have set the  Carter White House he said had exhibited uncertainty and ineptitude com pounded by moral blindness and a Lack of understanding of the processes of govern ment. If there is one strand of behaviour discernible through the fabric of the Carter administration s policy it is the strand of  Republican leaders also Are ready to expand that kind of charge from the Lance affair to the administration s cargo prefer ence Bill which they picture As a $600 Mil lion payoff for maritime Industry support in 1976. If that reminds you of something maybe it s the Way the democrats charged that Richard Nixon raised milk Price sup ports in return for Dairy Industry contrib  the Senate Carter s Energy Bill is being systematically taken apart with even its Centrepiece the tax on crude Oil endangered. And the president s Origi Nal program More and More critics Are saying was substantially Short of the moral equivalent of War that he said he was calling  congressional response to car Ter s welfare Reform proposals has Bee basically hostile particularly from the chairmen of the Senate finance and the House ways and Means committees. Farm Belt political analysts Are predicting that depression level farm income will Lead to heavy democratic losses in the 1978 congressional elections. The Panama canal treaties Are widely unpopular As every poll shows. Carter May have a constitutional crunch with Congress As to whether he should continue to observe the Salt agreement expiring oct. 3 without asking for legislative approval. Economic signals Are mixed at Best unemployment is far too High and Black leaders were pressing for expansionary policies although businessmen warned Carter in a White House meeting to go slow economically. Even India in t far enough away to escape such problems. But maybe Carter will come Home in somewhat better shape to face them. New York times office ofmana6emekt Inq Bow Carter caught squarely in the Lance fallout concerning the resignation of Bertrance a few observations 1. President Carter has once again demonstrated tas in his speeches at the . And notre Dame that he is absolutely unruffled by logic. If he had said As we All know two plus two equals five his brow would have remained completely unfurl rowed. What he did say was a or. Lance or rather Bert is without question objectively qualified to perform the serv ices of director of the budget b indeed Lieut is uniquely qualified to perform the services of director of the budget Inas much As there is a transcendent communion of will and purpose Between Bert and the president i Lieut was absolutely exonerated in the course of the investigation into his affairs and therefore d the re Public is Well served by his resignation. It is significant that or. Carter Man aged this Sor tical catastrophe without any Trace of apprehension. And when one re Porter said to him but or. President did t or. Lance violate such and such a Law having to do with the reporting of Loans to officers of a Bank the president calmly replied that he had nothing to add to the defense made by Bert which the president had found totally satisfactory. Conclusion the president thinks straight in crooked lines. 2. If one had chopped off the president s press conference two thirds of the Way through one would have concluded that he would arrive at the conclusion that Bert would stay on. The a turn at the end of the formal part of the conference showed that the president is less stubborn than Here and there predicted. He went so far Withberg and then however convinced he was of Bert s chastity he bowed to the pressure of Congress and the press. Most presidents do this. Occasionally you run into a Harry Truman who in these matters is to be compared to Gordon Liddy or Woodrow Wilson. Carter proved that at the margin he would yield. In doing so he demonstrated at once a strength and a weakness. A strength in his final declination to go to the fanatical lengths of a Woodrow Wilson ultimately eroding even his latent authority weakness in that he invites fractious Ness in the Congress and to a degree in the press. And of course the Mirage of Carter guided exclusively by the right or wrong of any question is gone As inevitably it had to go. Bye Bye. 3. The proposition that the press showed the impartiality of its investigative Zeal by going after Lance a Democrat should not be thoughtlessly accepted. It is True that Lance was a Democrat but that was not his dominant image. The Man the press pursued was not the democratic assistant to the president but the swinging capitalist banker who came to Washington to bal Ance the budget. It is an unguarded secret that or. Blumenthal the Secretary of the Treasury was to the left of Lance on a number of questions involving fiscal Hus Bandry. Much of the bureaucracy addicted to swollen budgets and expanding Federal activity opposed Lance and gave psychological Aid to his persecutors. And then above All Lance presented As a target for investigation a character out of sin Clair Lewis fast talking High living High flying informal in his use of the corporation Jet one reporter remarked that the frequency of Lance s business flights to College football games suggested that he sometimes confused himself with the Goodyear Blimp. He might As Well have been the president of the Gulf Oil corporation Given his nobility As a target for congressional criticism. One will be convinced of the extra Ideo logical impartiality of the press As an investigative dreadnought after we have a couple of weeks with Ralph Nader on the stand questioning him about his activities columns comments his lobbying his Strong Arm tactics his tax exempt connections. In other words the investigation of Lance does less than establish an inquisitorial impartiality in Washington. And finally 4the episode illuminated the vision of the blameless Public servant. Perhaps hew will set up a program de signed to procreate a generation of gala hads to take Over government. That is one approach. Another would be to look at the Maze of ambiguous an fractious mind reeling rules exemptions obligations written by Congress to torment taxpayers and anyone who wants to make his own Money rather than live off somebody else s. If there were As Many rules circumscribing what a politician could be permitted to say or do the Chambers of government would be empty which come to think of it would be a grand Relief. C Washington Star the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government