The Nation's Pulse /Jerry Ford
Rusthoven, PeterJ.
Presidents are neither born nor made; they create themselves as they go on. If this be existentialism, Carter (who no doubt read Sartre at age four) will surely make the most of it. Whatever...
...Clever cross-examination by Roger Marzulla enabled the plaintiff to focus his legal attack, after trial evidence pointed toward the negligence being insulated within the San Jose Main Post Office...
...That it has done so in such a relatively short period of time is no small tribute to the efforts of Gerald Ford...
...20036...
...Lawrence's arrogance quotient is high, even comidering his chosen field...
...employment...
...His program for Vietnam draft evaders and resisters likewise displayed compassion...
...Do you know the way m San Jose...
...A few things: Carter will have been savaged by the media, betrayed by one-time political allies, tested by the Russians, and challenged by Congress...
...The Judge ruled that individuals who are employed by the Postal Service are part of its organic whole, and are hence not liable to litigation incurred by their work habits, unless negligence can be linked directly to them...
...Mr Ford, to be sure, warrants his share of credit in more specific areas as well...
...19th century...
...thing, I would tell him, 'I do not believe you.' Then, I will look into it...
...Solomon's first impulse was to sue the Postal Se~ice for damages, but he was hatred from so doing by the provisions for sovereign immunity of the government in the Federal Code...
...Carter may consider himself fortunate if, when the time comes, he does as well...
...Lawrence countered with: "If Mr...
...One morning he will awake and discover he cannot remember how it was, standing there in the winter light, looking out at the multitudes awaiting his inaugural speech...
...If Messrs...
...For that, Mr...
...Nor, from a purely partisan perspective, can one refrain from speculating that a more effective campaign than Mr...
...Solomon to catl and complai~ about tardy delivery of his mailing, Mr...
...The case was then transferred m a Judge Harris for trial...
...9 . . . . . . . . . . _9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE NATION'S PULSE by PeterJ...
...He will desperately try to recapture that moment...
...When I asked William Lawrence for comment on the decision, he told me smugly, "The Federal judge's ruling is rather complete...
...Ford's would have retained the White House for his party...
...But Peter J. Rusthoven is a practicing attorney in Indianapolis...
...Such, in sum, is the plight of California clothing retailer Mel Solomon...
...And on that day, whenever it comes --and it will come--we will learn all we ever have to know about Jimmy Carter...
...Instead, Ford, more than any President since Harry Truman, brought to the Oval Office a deep regard for those simple and basic values on which our civilization and our constitutional republic depend--values such as honesty and decency, self-discipline and individual responsibility, respect for others and for one's self, and all those other attributes which collectively constitute character...
...Persistent vetoes of the sillier legislative offerings of the most adolescent Congress in our history have undoubtedly spared us much future hassle and grief...
...Written by Hal David and Butt Bacharach...
...To be sure, no one has forgotten the Watergate affair, or the first resignation of an American President...
...There are, of course, blemishes on the Ford record...
...The Court concurred with virtually all of Solomon's legal contentionsmthat he had lost $20,000 to $30,000, that the San Jose post office had failed to deliver promptly some 8,000 pieces (and failed altogether to deliver 2,000)--but nevertheless ruled that postal employees were immune from legal liability...
...But whatever the final historical judgment on Gerald Ford may be in these and other areas, I'believe it is enough for the present that we note our gratitude to him for restoring a measure 6t peace and quiet to our land, a measure of calm to our public affairs, and a full measure of dignity and respi:ct to our highest office...
...Stupp Moving the Mails: The Tortoise Express Neither snow nor rain nor gloom o f night shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds...
...Given a choice between retaining Henry Kissinger at State and J ames Schlesinger at Defense, I believe that a different conclusion was called for...
...After four days, the trial concluded...
...Solomon and Marzulla had staged auditions for the consummate federal bureaucrat m cast as defendant (read: "'heavy") for maximum benefit in their crusade, they would have been hard pressed m improve on William Lawrence, the San Jose postmaster and one of nine original defendants in the suit...
...District Judge Robert Schnocke, upon heating Mar'caHa's" argument in court, ruled that individuals employed by the federal government did not have unlimited immunity from suit while executing "'non-discretionary" duties of their Herbert ~V...
...Indeed, there are atleast fifteen precedents m American and British law whereby postmasters were held liable for heedless supervision...
...And it is to Mr...
...His attorney, ROger Marzulta, posits that there is no legal impediment to prosecuting individual postal workers for damages arising from their action or imtttitm...
...Indeed, to judge from all the fluttering in the press, the day's most noteworthy feature was the new President's decision to walk, not ride, in his inaugural parade--a situation which led William Satire to comment, in the New York Times, that if Carter's major accomplishment of the day was being a pedestrian, his address certainly partook of that quality as well...
...Ford's responses to Angola and to the Mayaguez affair were the responses one hopes will always be forthcoming from an American President--but were particularly gratifying in this time when so many attempt to use Vietnam as an argument for a posture of perpetual impotence...
...was Dionne Warwick's dulcet question back in the summer of 1968...
...So he will go downstairs to work...
...It is already difficult to remember how troubled and disturbed the Nation seemed in August of 1974, when Gerald Ford became President...
...He did not possess the so-called "charisma" of a John Kennedy, a dubious qualification that fawning political commentators had extolled until they sounded like a collection of stringers for movie magazines...
...When asked- by the Judge why no "delayed mall report-" was fded, or whyhe didn't attempt to isolatethe*~ responsible for the negfigeeee, Mr...
...So whee-)m~aak timm, they will deny they were there...
...Lawrence replied: "'Because, well, emplm/ees, your Honor, when if gets down to 'did you,' are not aittttt to adm~-that they knew that 2,000 piect~ were butie~ under something...
...and it is not too much to say that conduct of that sort was precisely and preeminently what the nation needed...
...Blue Seas Music, Inc...
...Carter's inauguration was, on any fair appraisal, far from the most inspiring ever witnessed on these shores...
...and Jack Music, publishers...
...In handling third.class flyers announcing an annual summer sale, the Postal Service delivered between 8,000 and 10,000 of Mel's mailers too late or not at all...
...They have filed an appeal in the Ninth IYmtrict of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and they intend to carry their legal action as far as their resources and jurisprudence will allow them...
...Whatever else he may be, he's not shy or unambitious...
...Solomon's shop, Sportique, depends on a mailing list that is regularly serviced to attract about 85% of its business...
...In the conduct both of affairs of state and of his own life, Ford daily demonstrated that regard...
...And iasked what his normal procedure would be, were Mr...
...Solomon decided on another course of action--bringing suit against the indim'dtuds he ascertained as responsible for his loss...
...Sdlomon determined that the bungled postal delivery had lost him well over $20,000 in profits...
...We have witnessed yet again the smooth workings of our constitutional order...
...Most of these cases were brought in the...
...The pardon of his predecessor was a courageous, compassionate, and far-sighted act --and will, I believe, be so viewed by the conventional wisdom of a future and, one hopes, less strident era...
...Carter's credit that his first statement as President was a gracious nod of thanks to the man who, less than two and one-half years ago, assumed office at a time when order, dignity, and peacefulness were less associated with the White House than at any time in memory...
...Jerry Ford for most of us, I suspect, it requires a conscious effort to recall in full detail these events of so very recent history...
...But consider bureaucratic indolence...
...The daily, painful trauma of more than a year's duration--with its unending series of fresh accusations and revelations, of acrimonious exchanges between an aggressive and often less-than-fair press and a defensive and often less-than-honest President--all this has faded, in large measure, from the national consciousness...
...Our interests were, from almost any perspective, little advanced by the Helsinki agreement...
...Copyright 1968...
...Rusthoven On January 20 of this year, James Earl Carter, J r . , repeated the oath adopted some 190 years ago by the Constitutional Convention and took office as the Nation's 39th Chief Executive...
...But if her question were directed in 1977 to the United States Postal Service--even its San Jose office-the answer would have to be no...
...The Judge laughed...
...Herbert IV...
...An organization based in Washington, the Citizens Legal Defense Fund, has begun to aid the appeal," and has provided $2,000 thus far...
...Solomon called me and complained about such a _9 "Do You Know the Way to San Jose...
...In his final argument, Marzulla exculpated seven of the defendants of any negligence, leaving the San Jose postmaster and assistant postmaster, William Lawrence and Wilmer Bennett, as the sole respondents to the suit...
...But four major decisions will have to be made by noon...
...And some of his appointments--such as Daniel ]~doynihan at the United Nations--stand unsurpassed...
...and unlike the plan pronounced by his successor, justly required those who refused to serve to earn their readmission to the privileges of full citizenship...
...Ford deserves our thanks and our best wishes as he assumes the venerable and honored role of a respected former President and elder statesman...
...Considering the events of the last decade, that in itself is an accomplishment: Mr...
...U.S...
...But be that as it may, the Carter inaugural also displayed another quality which, no matter how often remarked, remains among the most significant aspects of our constitutional republic --namely, the orderly, dignified, and peaceful transfer of executive authority...
...In six months or so we'll forget we ever saw Carter as mysterious...
...Without seeking the office, and with little time to prepare for its responsibilities, Ford nevertheless approached his duties with courage, integrity, and no little degree of ability...
...One cannot help but be staggered by the federal deficits of recent The Alternative: An American Spectator March 1977 23 fiscal years, and wonder ff more could not" have been done to thwart the blanbcheck artists on Capitol Hill...
...Solomon has spent $7,000 of his own funds on the suit...
...So Mr...
...The trial itself was Hollywood stuff...
...Nor was his the backroom manuevering and horsetrading savvy of a Lyndon Johnson, whose skill in these areas was so admired for a time by media amateurs who fancied themselves experts in realpolitik...
...A spokesman for the "Donations specified for the Mel Solomon suit are being funneled through the Citizens Legal Defense Fund, 2121 P Street, N.W., Washington, D.C...
...But Solomon and MarzuUa remain undaunted...
...24 The Alternative: AnAmerican Spectator March 1977...
...Plotting out prior performances of Sportique's summer sales, Mr...
...Stupp is an editorial writer for IVOR radto and television in New York...
...But what will we know then that we don't know now...
Vol. 10 • March 1977 • No. 6
