Trouble at Credibility Gap

...Concern over the President's sincerity, honesty and integrity has led, in turn, to questions about his Administration's overall credibility?an issue that could be more damaging in the long run than any other, including Vietnam...

...Indeed, he has gone unscathed in a number of instances where sound criticism was justified...

...Incredibly, too, all incoming telephone calls for Foley and his top aides were funnelled through the office of one of Watson's loyalists...

...Because he sees no immediate threat to his re-election by the likes of Michigan's Governor George Romney, California's Governor Ronald Reagan or Illinois' freshman Senator Charles Percy, the President may continue to go his own way in any way he so desires...

...SPLIT, FLOUNDERING, WEARY...

...Such off-guard candor is hardly news in Washington, where a war-weary President is obviously experiencing the hardest days of his life...

...There is no disgrace in slowing down domestic programs to meet a very serious conflict overseas," Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield told a news conference...

...This is a powerful option, indeed????leaving the President vulnerable to a trump card...

...It would be overly dramatic to say that the Federal establishment is going to pot...

...he supposedly told the governors...

...As a counter-reaction to being ignored, a group of Democratic governors complained about the President's indifference to their problems, called him a political liability in 1968, and won for themselves what must be the most grudging interview Lyndon Johnson has ever granted...

...This is what worries Administration officials...

...The open secret is that Washington has been rather leader-less since early last summer...

...Yet Representative Wilbur Mills (D.-Ark...

...Did he purposely backtrack from establishing a meaningful regional development program that could provide the beginnings of a national political apparatus for the Administration on the one hand, and experiment boldly with the concept of creative federalism in the other, or did he just lose sight of the power struggle until it was too late to restore harmony...

...the startled reporter blurted...

...This penchant for secrecy is well documented and has resulted in costly and unbelievable blunders...

...it is in the nature of things for the President to catch hell every so often...

...Yet it would be inaccurate to suggest, as some are inclined to do, that the chips from the Great Society have been cashed in or that the President, after losing a few big bets, has sworn off the game...

...Minutes later, White House aides reacted by saying, "Who said we are slowing down...

...President Johnson is now stuck with a formidable objective which his critics have glued on to his illustrious forehead...

...In addition petty and secretive behavior has caused a very serious image problem for President Johnson...

...Although he expected that Vietnam would be an anathema to the "ADA bunch," he had hoped, perhaps un-realistically, for less passionate reactions at a difficult time in history...

...The unanswered question is whether the President was fully aware of what was going on down the street...

...Not a damn thing is up...

...When reporters complained to the press office about the endless sheafs of paper that threatened to drown them all, the practice was abruptly halted...

...And when on very rare occasions he does attempt to fight back????like his "Nervous Nellies" speech in Chicago last year????he invariably says the wrong thing...

...the President mumbled, "we're damn low...

...Of course, the last time such a trip was considered, and preparations were underway across the country, the President denied that any visits were contemplated...

...But politics enjoys a certain unhappy immunity from the full thrust of Newtonian principles: Namely, that once the object is down, it may...

...In numerous private conversations, he has talked of late with increasing bitterness about those whom he has served faithfully and who, in return, are now snapping at his heels "with the rest of the wolf pack...

...I was born the way I am, and there is nothing I can do about it...

...The President's most persistent problem, therefore, appears to be himself...

...The Trouble at Credibility Gap By Roger Kingsbury Washington On a quiet Saturday afternoon recently, a White House reporter checked in at his post and literally bumped into Lyndon Johnson, prowling the corridors...

...Other than that, we never hear beans from the White House...

...Accordingly, the President's current state of mind is of more genuine concern among his followers than the state of the union...

...More often than not, though, the White House looks bad on matters that are downright silly...

...Now only the most important announcements are released through the White House, but reporters are very suspicious about the veracity of information from Federal agencies that the press office has been able to edit...

...All in all, a very unLyndonlike performance...

...But unless he comes to grips with the fact that his own personality stands in the way of his genuine achievements, he may be going his own way alone...

...Witness Robert Kennedy's continuous bout with the word "ruthless" or Hubert Humphrey's ordeal with "radical...

...A major Johnson criticism of his predecessor was that President Kennedy did not do his homework with the Congress, did not take pains to cajole and wheedle ahead of time to get advance agreements on proposed legislation...

...An adjective prefixed to the proper name seems to stick no matter how the victim squirms...

...a key figure in the proposed six per cent tax surcharge legislation, has publicly stated that he had no advance word that the increase was being contemplated...

...For example, his Administration has scored extremely low grades on overall supervision of new federal programs...

...Eugene Foley, an able and energetic man, lasted less than a year at the helm of the Economic Development Administration (eda), followup to the old Area Redevelopment Administration, because of excessive interference by the White House and because the President allowed Foley's boss, former Secretary of Commerce John T. Connor, to counteract any political decisions Foley may have reached with individual Congressmen...

...And as he grumbles about his critics and broods about his dilemmas this long winter, one wonders whether this truly gifted President realizes how often he is the one who is painting his Administration into nasty corners...

...it is accurate to note that it has slowed to quarter-speed and there is outspoken resentment about the manner in which the Administration is running the show...

...Although he has slowed domestic spending to a snail's pace, he is ready to concede nothing and larded his State of the Union speech with a list of proposed legislation that was basically unimportant and certainly costless...

...Politics is a sport of ebb and flow, and its only predictable qualities approximate Newton's calculation that what goes up must come down...

...For while it is tempting to compare his popularity dip with Harry Truman's and recall how the peppery Missourian fought back to victory, the fact is that where Truman was a fighter Johnson is a brooder...

...Meanwhile, there is talk that the President will become very active next spring and summer...

...The only message we get," says one agency director, "is to hold costs at all costs...

...Even fewer, though, think that he will remain earthbound much longer or that he will lose the 1968 election...

...Morale is also low at Justice over the way Nicholas Katzenbach was suddenly switched to State, and at Labor, where the idea of combining with Commerce is as popular as Jimmy Hoffa...

...He has obviously taken to heart the old chestnut about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, because he has mastered the art...

...That is another way of saying, "if you don't like me, lump it"????which has long been Johnson's reaction to criticism...

...It is doubtful whether any President in modern history has played his hands closer to the vest than Lyndon Johnson...

...Instead, he went into the hospital...

...Many similar questions remain to be answered about the conduct of the war against poverty, and the increasingly shabby treatment Sargent Shriver has received from the Administration...

...But when the private, behind-the-scenes "reasoning together" breaks down????what is the remaining alternative...

...One wonders, also, whether his petulance these days is getting the better of his political judgment...

...He is particularly bitter about his growing unpopularity among Negroes, believing????and rightly????that no other President has done more for civil rights than he...

...In fact, Mills and other Congressional leaders met with the President shortly before the speech was delivered and were told he had just about ruled out a tax increase for this year...

...Such is the way of Credibility Gap...

...The so-called "Credibility Gap" (which, by the way, has become the press' code name for the White House) is also a tribute to Johnson's temperamental extremes...

...Labels are something a politician fears most...

...We will help the American Indian...

...With Connor being a Republican and Watson being a conservative Texas politician, there was little doubt in Washington that Foley's operation would be brought to heel...

...The extent of the President's sensitivity can perhaps best be appreciated when it is recognized that aside from Vietnam (admittedly a very big aside), he actually has fared rather well with his critics...

...I've given them [liberals] all the programs they have been wanting for more than 20 years, and all I get in return is sneers," he has complained...

...The recent speculation that Johnson might opt for peaceful grazing on the banks of the Perdenales is fanciful, and has no doubt been encouraged by the President's own tendency to indulge in self-pity...

...President...

...So he believes...

...we must do more for educational television, etc...

...Nowadays, reporters who hear a rumor about Presidential appointments will write the story only if they are against the possible appointee, knowing that they have an excellent chance of nipping a decision in the bud...

...What's up, Mr...

...Foley's staff, moreover, included two close associates of White House aide Marvin Watson, who would notify the Texan about every new project approved by eda...

...But his greatest scorn is reserved for the liberal ranks of the Democratic party, especially its Eastern contingent, who have been in the front lines of those hurling bricks at his Vietnam policies and accusing him of deserting most of his Great Society programs now that they have become law...

...At one point (the fall of 1965) all news releases from every government agency in Washington were released through the White House...

...Embarrassed aides usually try to explain away incidents resulting from premature disclosures of a Presidential action by pointing out that Johnson was only trying to maintain his options...

...Trial balloons to test public reaction are an important guiding resource????and the President has floated very few...

...What is worrisome is that this President is taking his licking poorly????retreating deep into the recesses of the White House where he is neither seen nor heard by the people or by members of his Federal family...

...Uncredible...

...Unless you're involved in Vietnam these days, forget it...

...Some of the most telling blows have occurred over actions in Vietnam, and all information released to the press from Saigon is first approved at the White House...

...In Humphrey's case the word has stuck so well that House Minority Leader Gerald Ford never loses an opportunity to refer to "the Johnson-Humphrey Administration," knowing that the Vice President's name is cause enough to raise the hackles in certain quarters...

...That their leader is currently embattled is not too worrisome...

...It is clear that Johnson is not a public man, willing to air the nation's problems and take on all comers before the camera's eye...

...Their feelings are based partly on the assumption that the President is a much better politician than he has demonstrated of late, and also on the deduction that there is no Republican opponent being talked about who bears any resemblance to a future President...

...His participation in an April meeting of Latin American heads of state, it is said, will be the signal for a whirlwind of public appearances across the country to try to bolster his stock with the people...

...This disappointment may explain the very brief references to civil rights matters in his State of the Union message...

...present tenure in office...

...In fact, his bullying of the press and his obvious reluctance to impart information to those directly affected by his decisions until the last possible moment, may have tended to cut severely into his choices...

...John F. Kennedy always received the benefit of the liberal's doubts, but not Lyndon Johnson...

...at any given point, rise up again...

...Few political observers here believe that President Johnson will ever again soar so free or so high as he did during the first half of his Roger Kingsbury is a jree-lcmce journalist living in Washington, D.C...