Rockefeller as Mr. Reliable

...He declared, too, in a typical display of enthusiasm that "no stones are left unturned, no punches pulled," but the violations uncovered are "not major...

...Although this accolade failed to arouse the interest of any news editor responsible for coverage in the nation's capital, it and others appear to be pleasing the Vice President's primary audience, Gerald Ford...

...Then he went on to note that the one-sentence "Fact and Comment" remark was "a good observation...

...As the President put it, Rockefeller has "a tremendously cooperative attitude...

...Goodwin led a National Security Council task force that considered plans to destabilize the Castro regime...

...Scantly funded and lacking any clear signals from the Oval Room to produce new programs, the Council is unlikely to come up with much of immediate policy significance over the remaining 17 months of the Ford-Rockefeller term...

...Whether this portends well or ill for Nelson Rockefeller a year before the Republican National Convention is another matter...

...And these are what the Vice President hopes to come back to now that he has completed his five-month stint as head of the commission to investigate the Central Intelligence Agency...

...Rockefeller staff members, in turn, were annoyed that the White House switched signals on them with regard to issuing the report...

...Happy never wanted to come to Washington in the first place, and her husband, who will be 68 at next year's convention, is showing his years...

...Following long years of bucking the dominant elements in the Republican party, he has apparently decided he wants to make his peace...

...uniformly said they endorsed Ford, on his Mayaguez record if nothing else, but wanted Rockefeller dumped in favor of their hero, Ronald Reagan...

...In any event, Rockefeller is abiding by the rules...

...While his wife, Happy, fixes up the Admiral's House, the new Vice Presidential quarters, for a September debut, Rockefeller is aggressively, enthusiastically, exuding cooperation...

...Despite his efforts at currying favor with the party's Right wing, the Vice President continues to be anathema to the conservatives...

...Few disagree, however, that Rockefeller wobbled badly on his way out of the investigation...

...He chairs the Council, and its domination by two close associates was seen as giving him a private power base...

...But this concern has vanished, and with cause...

...In Before the Fall, William Safire described Nixon as once remarking, "Only three men in America understand the use of power...

...It would be a mistake not to recognize, though, that the Vice President serves Ford as a convenient lightning rod for deflecting much conservative discontent...

...Similarly, conservative senators are still rankled by Rockefeller's gaffe last February while presiding over a Senate debate on modifying the filibuster rules...

...They insist privately that his refusal to recognize Senator James Allen (D.-Ala...

...The reformers eventually succeeded in altering the rules, but not before Allen, a master parliamentarian, tried their resolve by requiring such votes as the following: "A motion to table a motion to reconsider a vote to table an appeal of a ruling that a point of order was not in order against a motion to table another point of order against a motion to bring to a vote the motion to call up the resolution that would institute the rules change...

...Rightist Republican senators, eager for the chance to get rid of their old bete noire, are lining up behind the idea, and a couple of months ago even Melvin Laird, a close friend and adviser to Ford, floated the possibility...

...Considering the attitude of many Republicans around the country, Rockefeller may simply decide that he is tired of being what he once called "standby equipment...

...printing the name in the smallest of type...

...A brief visit I made in early June to the citrus-growing region of Yuma, Arizona, near the Mexico and California borders, further revealed the extent of the disenchantment with the Vice President in his party...

...who was spearheading the fight against the change, showed his true liberal colors...

...White House aides were furious at Rockefeller's performance in the last days of the commission's life...

...John Connally does and I guess Nelson does...

...Republican leaders who had assembled to hear a speech by the ultraconservative Representative Sam Steiger (R.-Ariz...

...Interviewed by investigators of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, headed by Senator Frank Church [D.-Id.], he insisted that schemes to murder Castro never progressed beyond the talking stage...

...Of course, come next November Rockefeller himself may decide against four more years...

...Only a few weeks ago he played out his self-defined role perfectly...

...He has made getting along a full-time pursuit...

...This point has often been made as well by Reagan, who, with time on his hands, is painstakingly exploiting anti-Rockefeller feeling wherever he can find it...

...Moreover, the conclusiveness of the findings was thrown into doubt when, among other things, it was pointed out that the commission did not question key Kennedy staffer Richard Goodwin, who had admitted participating in official discussions of ways to remove Cuban Premier Fidel Castro...

...If he has a boiling point, it was not reached in the CIA commission squabble...

...He appears content to echo the conservative White House line...

...When the ex-New York Governor was tapped to come to Washington, a somewhat unfriendly politician in his state predicted that Rockefeller would do nothing to steal the limelight from his less forceful superior out of reverence for the Presidency...

...Some here have strongly criticized the final report of the eight-man commission, charging that it contains only feather-duster recommendations for reforming the CIA...

...In his Yuma address, for instance, Steiger complained that the only difference between a liberal and a conservative in Washington these days is that a liberal wants an $80 billion deficit and a conservative $50 billion...

...In the intense days of reviewing the report line-by-line while preparing for its release, the Vice President apparently forgot momentarily that he had left all real authority behind in Albany 18 months ago and began saying all the wrong things...

...Rockefeller's apology to the conservatives from the rostrum a few months later has not neutralized the deep-seated suspicions...

...Reliable toward the Republicans, especially Gerald Ford...

...They even disputed the New Yorker's credentials as a regular Republican, citing as evidence against him his failure on three occasions-lavish campaign spending notwithstanding-to be nominated for the Presidency...

...Evelle J. Younger, the California Attorney General and the leading Republican in the state, contributed to such speculation when he said after a meeting last month with Robert T. Hartmann, an important Ford adviser, that the Vice President "might not be too interested in running for election.' A Ford-Reagan ticket, he went on to say, was "a good possibility...

...Only in contrast to a Barry Gold-water or a James Buckley did he seem to be off on the Left...

...So it is perhaps not altogether surprising that since he moved into his present post, he has said and done virtually nothing that would distinguish him from Ford on defense, economic or social issues...

...Some of them reportedly quipped that the Vice President richly deserved the Mickey Mouse cap given him at the Annapolis graduation...

...others regard the document as unexpectedly illuminating, given the body's pro-intelligence make-up...

...At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, meanwhile, the release of the report was delayed until President Ford could read it, and he decided not to issue the section on assassinations...

...In fact, it is devoting its limited resources to in-depth, long-range studies reminiscent of the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans sponsored by Rockefeller prior to his return to public life...

...To put the icing on the cake, at a luncheon and dinner during the gathering Rockefeller heaped praise on Ford as a "true leader, a statesman...

...Not very well-known nationally until he was himself named Vice President by Richard Nixon, the former Michigan Representative no doubt feels vindicated in his choice of the second selected Vice President in the country's history-and the first one to be appointed by a President who was not elected either...

...Nonetheless, Ford brushed aside the controversy, saying it "has not embarrassed me...

...With Ford fairly secure as the Republican nominee next year, this kind of anger is being vented on Rockefeller...

...Of course, he was never quite as liberal as his image...

...Thus, on several occasions he suggested that the commission's entire findings would be made available to the public, including the section on CIA plots to murder foreign leaders...

...I do...

...Short of a George Wallace candidacy, the conservatives are already locked up by Ford, and it is doubtful that the Vice President will attract moderates and liberals turned off by the President...

...Before attending a meeting of New York Republican leaders, he sent off a highly deferential letter saying he did not want his state exerting "pressure on the President in my behalf"-instead of keeping quiet and allowing the Rockefeller-oriented crew to endorse him for Vice President in 1976...

...All the warnings that Ford would be upstaged by Rockefeller, with his outgoing personality and high-powered staff, have proved unfounded...

...But in mid-June the President responded by expressing "great admiration'' for his Vice President and saying he wanted the New Yorker on the ticket, albeit with the mild caveat that Rockefeller would have to convince GOP delegates he merited the job...

...Rockefeller also retains his appeal to Ford for the reasons that originally prompted his selection-a big-state constituency, access to brain power, stature, and experience...

...Stephen Nordlinger is a Washington reporter for the Baltimore Sun...

...Which undoubtedly explains in part the White House's cool reaction to Goldwater's suggestion that Rockefeller be named Secretary of State, and to the notion of an open convention-something new for a party accustomed to having the second spot on its ticket filled by its top choice...

...Forbes magazine, reflecting a degree of surprise at the low-key Rockefeller performance, asked recently in its "Fact and Comment" section, "Whatever became of Nelson Rockefeller...

...For them he is the same man who denounced Goldwater-extremism at the 1964 Convention amid jeers and boos from the hall...

...On the other hand, dumping Rockefeller could result in a conservative replacement pressed by the Convention, giving the Republicans an overly Right-of-center cast...

...A few days earlier, Rockefeller had marveled at the growth of Ford in the White House, and said his transformation as national leader was the great untold story in Washington...

...Yet whether Rockefeller can bring any votes to the ticket not otherwise drawn to it is uncertain...

...In an interview with Ford in the same issue, the President explained, "we are making him work very hard...

...Rather than developing fresh ideas for Rockefeller, Cannon and Dunham are blending into the overall White House operation...

...But around the White House these days he is assuming a take-it-or-leave-it stance toward 1976 as he plays Mr...

...This may account for his deference: He is treating Ford as he would expect to be treated in the office he sought three times, which now seems beyond his reach...

...The Vice President was thought to have scored at least one coup when he convinced Ford, over the objections of Administration Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld, to install James Cannon and Richard Dunham as top executives of the Domestic Council...