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Lance
Investigations
continue in D. C.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The investigation of Bert
Lance’s finances is continuing on Capitol Hill and in
several government agencies, despite his resignation as
director of the Office of Management and Budget.
And members of Congress generally think Lance made
the right move Wednesday when he quit his post and that
his troubles have hurt President Carter politically.
The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in
vestigation and other inquiries into Lance’s financial
affairs are still open. The committee is still awaiting
answers to some questions Lance promised to supply in
writing during his three days of testimony last week.
In addition, Comptroller of the Currency John G.
Heimann has referred a report on Lance’s personal and
political use of bank-owned airplanes to the Justice
Department, the Federal Election Commission and the
Internal Revenue Service.
Banking committees in both houses have been looking
at banking laws and regulations as a result of issues
raised by the Lance affair. These inquiries, centering not
on Lance himself but on possible changes in the law, are
expected to be pursued.
“Despite the fact that Mr. Lance put some questions to
rest, others remain unanswered,” Senate Majority
Leader Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia said after Lance’s
resignation Wednesday.
“This is maybe the first snag in the silk cloth that
surrounds the presidency,” said Rep. Robert H. Michel of
Illinois, the assistant Republican leader in the House.
Lawmakers disagreed over how lasting the harm to
Carter and the Democrats would be.
“The elections are a year away, and names are quickly
forgotten,” said Speaker of the House Thomas P. O’Neill
Jr., D-Mass.
And Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois, ranking Republican
on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, said
Carter had been hurt politically, but “he can recover from
it.”
, However, Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker of
Tennessee, a possible contender for the Republican
presidential nomination in 1960, said: “I don’t think
President Carter will ever fully recover from it. The
damage has been done.”
Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., also a member of the
Governmental Affairs Committee, said that if Lance had
remained in office he would not have been able to “serve
in his job completely” because of unresolved legal issues.
And Rep. John B. Anderson of Illinois, chairman of the
House Republican Conference, was disturbed by Carter’s
insistence that allegations against Lance were false. “He
is prejudging an ongoing investigation of his own
Department of Justice,” Anderson said.
Congressional supporters as well as critics of Lance
generally said he had done the right thing by quitting.
“If he stayed at the Office of Management and Budget,
he would have been in the eye of the storm,” said Sen.
Thomas F. Eagleton, D-Mo., Lance’s staunchest defen
ders on the Senate committee.
Percy, who had been demanding Lance’s resignation
for more than two weeks, called the decision “in the best
interest of the country and in the best interest of this
administration.”
But Sen. Lawton Chiles, DFla., also a committee mem
ber, regretted the resignation, saying: “He and I have
shared goals of improving the budget process and
achieving a balanced budget. I only hope his successor...
will be as effective in pursuing those goals.”
Some lawmakers chastised the news media for covering
the Lance case.
Saying Lance was caught up in “a media festival... with
scores of investigative reporters nipping at his heels,”
Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., commented, “I believe the news
media can do a little self-examination of its role in this
overall matter.”
Sen. James Allen, D-Ala., said the news media went
“after Lance’s scalp. Well, they’ve gotten his scalp. But
there’s a serious question whether the best interests of the
government have been served."
Rep. Henry Reuss, D-Wis., chairman of the House
Banking Committee, said that “in an administration that
prides itself on the highest standards, there wasn’t
anything else to do” but let Lance go.
Rep. Fernand J. St. Germain, D-R.1., chairman of a
House panel that held hearings on the Lance affair in
connection with banking legislation, said: “It is very clear
that we need substantive corrective measures. The
Congress must pass a strong bank regulatory bill this
session.”
Drugging
was not
confirmed
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Associated Press erroneously
reported Wednesday that the
former science chief of the CIA
had told a Senate subcommittee
that members of President Nix
on’s traveling party were
drugged during a trip to an
“unfriendly” nation in 1971.
Dr. Sidney Gottlieb actually
told the Senate subcommittee
on health that he had been
asked to determine if peculiar
symptoms, including outbursts
of tears at inappropriate mo
ments, could have been caused
by drugs.
In erroneously reporting that
Gottlieb had confirmed that
members of the Nixon party
had been drugged, The AP re
porter covering the hearing
misunderstood the former CIA
science chiefs testimony.
Governor
has fans
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -
The governor-elect of Baja Cal
ifornia, Roberto de la Madrid,
has a lot of fans in this border
town of 700,000 residents — he
got the city’s lights turned back
on after a night in the dark.
Madrid called federal offi
cials in Mexico City and won a
two-week reprieve in payment
of $90,000 due for federal elec
tricity. The power had been
turned off Tuesday.
When the lights in city hall
returned Wednesday, Mayor
Fernando Marquez Arce was
using kerosene lights. His em
ployes were sent home at dusk
the night before. They usually
stay until 9:30 p.m.
A spokesman for the mayor
said Tijuana doesn’t have
enough money to pay the bill,
which is up 500 per cent since
January because of the peso
devaluation.
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DAI LY NEWS
Griffin Daily News Thursday, September 22,1977
Page 9