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...
...Most of these cases were brought in the...
...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...
...But four major decisions will have to be made by noon...
...and Jack Music, publishers...
...His attorney, ROger Marzulta, posits that there is no legal impediment to prosecuting individual postal workers for damages arising from their action or imtttitm...
...Lawrence countered with: "If Mr...
...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...
...employment...
...But consider bureaucratic indolence...
...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...
...So whee-)m~aak timm, they will deny they were there...
...Persistent vetoes of the sillier legislative offerings of the most adolescent Congress in our history have undoubtedly spared us much future hassle and grief...
...Lawrence's arrogance quotient is high, even comidering his chosen field...
...The trial itself was Hollywood stuff...
...But Solomon and MarzuUa remain undaunted...
...Whatever else he may be, he's not shy or unambitious...
...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...
...So he will go downstairs to work...
...We have witnessed yet again the smooth workings of our constitutional order...
...Stupp Moving the Mails: The Tortoise Express Neither snow nor rain nor gloom o f night shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds...
...Blue Seas Music, Inc...
...Nor, from a purely partisan perspective, can one refrain from speculating that a more effective campaign than 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...
...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...
...Solomon decided on another course of action--bringing suit against the indim'dtuds he ascertained as responsible for his loss...
...If Messrs...
...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...
...But what will we know then that we don't know now...
...Solomon to catl and complai~ about tardy delivery of his mailing, Mr...
...Sdlomon determined that the bungled postal delivery had lost him well over $20,000 in profits...
...That it has done so in such a relatively short period of time is no small tribute to the efforts of Gerald Ford...
...An organization based in Washington, the Citizens Legal Defense Fund, has begun to aid the appeal," and has provided $2,000 thus far...
...And it is to Mr...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...Our interests were, from almost any perspective, little advanced by the Helsinki agreement...
...To be sure, no one has forgotten the Watergate affair, or the first resignation of an American President...
...Mr Ford, to be sure, warrants his share of credit in more specific areas as well...
...20036...
...Ford's would have retained the White House for his party...
...So Mr...
...The case was then transferred m a Judge Harris for trial...
...But Peter J. Rusthoven is a practicing attorney in Indianapolis...
...Solomon has spent $7,000 of his own funds on the suit...
...When I asked William Lawrence for comment on the decision, he told me smugly, "The Federal judge's ruling is rather complete...
...The Judge laughed...
...19th century...
...His program for Vietnam draft evaders and resisters likewise displayed compassion...
...Carter's inauguration was, on any fair appraisal, far from the most inspiring ever witnessed on these shores...
...Considering the events of the last decade, that in itself is an accomplishment: Mr...
...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...
...Plotting out prior performances of Sportique's summer sales, Mr...
...Ford deserves our thanks and our best wishes as he assumes the venerable and honored role of a respected former President and elder statesman...
...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...
...Stupp is an editorial writer for IVOR radto and television in New York...
...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...
...In the conduct both of affairs of state and of his own life, Ford daily demonstrated that regard...
...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...
...In six months or so we'll forget we ever saw Carter as mysterious...
...And iasked what his normal procedure would be, were Mr...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...was Dionne Warwick's dulcet question back in the summer of 1968...
...U.S...
...Given a choice between retaining Henry Kissinger at State and J ames Schlesinger at Defense, I believe that a different conclusion was called for...
...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...
...Such, in sum, is the plight of California clothing retailer Mel Solomon...
...For that, Mr...
...He will desperately try to recapture that moment...
...Solomon's shop, Sportique, depends on a mailing list that is regularly serviced to attract about 85% of its business...
...Solomon called me and complained about such a _9 "Do You Know the Way to San Jose...
...And some of his appointments--such as Daniel ]~doynihan at the United Nations--stand unsurpassed...
...Do you know the way m San Jose...
...Herbert IV...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...And on that day, whenever it comes --and it will come--we will learn all we ever have to know about Jimmy Carter...
...9 . . . . . . . . . . _9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE NATION'S PULSE by PeterJ...
...Copyright 1968...
...Written by Hal David and Butt Bacharach...
...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...
...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...
...It is already difficult to remember how troubled and disturbed the Nation seemed in August of 1974, when Gerald Ford became President...
...24 The Alternative: AnAmerican Spectator March 1977...
...Carter may consider himself fortunate if, when the time comes, he does as well...
...Indeed, there are atleast fifteen precedents m American and British law whereby postmasters were held liable for heedless supervision...
...After four days, the trial concluded...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...thing, I would tell him, 'I do not believe you.' Then, I will look into it...
...There are, of course, blemishes on the Ford record...
...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...
...When asked- by the Judge why no "delayed mall report-" was fded, or whyhe didn't attempt to isolatethe*~ responsible for the negfigeeee, Mr...
...and it is not too much to say that conduct of that sort was precisely and preeminently what the nation needed...
...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...
...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...
Vol. 10 • March 1977 • No. 6
