HOW MONDALE MAKES HIS MONEY

...While earning more than $200,000 a year representing such clients as Pepsi Cola, Nixon found plenty of time to stump the country on behalf of Republican candidates, picking up valuable political IOUs...

...It's probably a good investment for a company to pay them just to have the phone number of the man who will be chief of staff if Mondale becomes president...

...As a former vice president, Mondale is the recipient of an unneeded entitlement himself-a $28,000-a-year pension...

...A president-not just by virtue of what he says, but by his own example-might be able to lead America out of this moral wilderness...

...I am satisfied...

...But having shown no qualms about accepting an unneeded pension or $150,000 a year from his law firm for doing little work, it’s hardly surprising that Mondale bristles at the thought of telling wealthy elderly couples they don’t “deserve” their Social Security checks...

...Editorial writers and government officials “struggling” to make ends meet on incomes of $60,000 a year obviously have difficulty urging those living on half that to give something up...

...More to the point, among such professionals the notion of “sacrifice” is viewed with suspicion...

...We do not do any work for Walter Mondale-we do not receive reimbursement for any professional or consulting services from the campaign...

...Mondale suggested that Public Strategies be brought on board to help the group write grant proposals and establish a national advisory committee...

...Less than 150,000 of the nation's 95 million taxpayers earned more...

...This was the problem facing James Johnson, now Walter Mondale's campaign manager...

...Since leaving the vice presidency in 1981, he has drifted into a world of six-figure legal retainers and consulting fees, a world in which the concept of "an honest day's work for an honest day's pay" has little meaning...

...A different, even more pervasive selfishness afflicts America today, a selfishness that respects no boundaries of ideology or social class...

...if he had to shame his listeners into facing that unpleasant truth, so be it...

...Asked about the more than $10,000 that Public Strategies received from Mondale's PAC in January 1984-listed as "consulting-contracts" and "casual services" on Federal Elections Commission reports :Anstrom explained that Johnson, whose only office is at Public Strategies, occasionally used the firm's secretaries for campaign work and the office space for "more than incidental use" for campaign meetings...

...Mondale's office...

...His answer to our social ills, voluntarism, is ignored by his wealthy supporters who spend their free time at the country club as they did before...

...Bernice Weissbourd, who runs the program, recalls that she first learned of Public Strategies "when we went for the appointment' with Mr...

...Mondale's decision to put his credentials to such highly remunerative use is hardly unprecedented...

...I think my credentials are there for all to see...

...Babcock recalls-Mondale was somewhat testy...

...Allowed to persist, this attitude-that Americans should strive to get theirs lest someone else get it instead-has ominous consequences...

...He was more specific about what Public Strategies does not do...

...Maria Zammit, a "foreign policy analyst...

...It is a world in which what one "deserves" is commensurate with whatever one can get...

...Exactly what does Public Strategies do for its diverse list of clients, which also includes Lehman Brothers KuhnLoeb, Nike, Dreyfuss (a New York investment firm), Cummins Engine, Beatrice Foods, the United Way, and the National Education Association...

...Because an average household consists of three people, a single person with the same income-say, a 25-year-old associate at a large corporate law firm-is even better off...

...and Richard Holbrooke, Carter's deputy secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs...

...Instead they'll probably choose Walter F. Mondale...

...last .year he made $420,000...

...Allen and Co., a New York investment firm run by Herbert Allen, once the most powerful stockholder at Columbia, has paid Mondale more than $58,000...

...Mondale and Jim Johnson was there also" Family Focus hired Public Strategies for $50,000...

...The new firm hung out its shingle just down the hall from Mondale's law office...

...The deferment was wrong...

...Northwest Energy Co., which in 1981 unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to let it immediately charge its customers for a natural gas pipeline project, paid Mondale $43,000...

...For Walter Mondale, who has been averaging almost $500,000 a year, asking anyone to give anything up is not going to be easy...

...Even if Mondale always replied, “I’m too busy, call me next week,” whenever the firm solicited his “counsel,” Winston & Strawn would still be getting its money’s worth...

...Michael Berman, now Mondale's campaign treasurer, was able to find work for a Washington law firm that lobbied for Columbia Pictures...

...Nixon forsook his native state of California for New York City-Mondale stayed in Washington rather than return to Minneapolis-and became a partner in John Mitchell's law firm...

...Reagan’s staggering budget deficits cannot be substantially reduced, much less eliminated, without the restructuring of entitlement programs that already consume half the federal budget...

...just as the average man is hard-pressed to get no-interest loans from his banker-an argument being made by Senators who accuse Ed Meese of influence peddling-the average man has similar difficulty finding someone who’ll pay him $150,000 a year and not ask how he spends his time...

...shared his audience’s skepticism about the war...

...The success of Public Strategies cannot be solely attributed to the talents of Johnson and his associates...

...Mondale himself worked out a $150,000-a-year arrangement with the firm of Winston & Strawn...

...A second home becomes a necessity...

...By any reasonable definition, these people are also members of the upper class, although they often don’t recognize it...

...Nor is Mondale yet a millionaire...

...By relative standards, Mondale has also shown considerable self-restraint...

...During the late 1970's, Allen helped embroil Columbia Pictures in a messy scandal by insisting that David Begelman, an executive who had admitted to forging several company checks, be kept' on the payroll...

...I think the average American is more just and more compassionate than Nixon thinks he is" It is not just Mondale's uncritical allegiance to special interest groups that undermines this sentiment...

...Ann King of Cummins Engine and Pat Brozowki of Beatrice simply said that Public Strategies offers advice on their "foreign investments...

...And since professionals usually marry other professionals, it’s quite common, particularly in Washington, to find couples with household incomes over $100,000-and both partners under the age of 35...

...The Allen connection paid off another way: Warner Communications, whose president, Steve Ross, is a prominent Democratic fundraiser and a friend of Allen's, also became a client...

...In the last three years, Mondale has earned almost $1.5 million...

...But Ronald Reagan has proved he is not such a leader...

...The efforts of both Mondale and Johnson's firm came to naught...

...Anstrom's colleagues also didn't reveal how lucrative their venture has proven-largely because they couldn't be reached...

...But the important issue isn’t whether Mondale is “right” or “wrong” in accepting such compensation for such modest exertions...

...According to a secretary at Public Strategies, "There's no set time that he comes in-he just comes in when he's needed...

...13 CEOs pulled in more than‘$3 million each...

...One vacations in the Caribbean rather than visiting the in-laws or painting the house...

...After the announcement that 11,842 executives of Ford and General Motors received bonuses in 1983 totaling $262.3 million, Owen Bieber of the United Autoworkers predicted his members will respond to such greed in kind by demanding hefty wage hikes-rather than urging lower car prices to regain lost business...

...And what about the Democrats...

...The matter was complicated further by the fact that Johnson lacks something that can be very useful in Washington in such circumstances: a law degree...

...Yet he was unwilling to stay silent about such a selfish and hypocritical attitude...

...And, if he can’t do that, how can he ask workers to take wage cuts that may be necessary, at least in the short term, to make their companies competitive again, regain lost market shares, and flourish in the long term...

...That Mondale has done well for himself is obvious...

...They are satisfied...

...His exertions don't seem to have exhausted him...

...One congressional aide who's dealt with Public Strategies puts its appeal this way: "It's like an insurance company...

...This nonprofit group, which operates programs for children, paid Mondale $100,000 in 1981 and 1982 to help raise money...

...Irving Harris, a liberal Chicago businessman and a Mondale backer, donated $200,000 for the fund-raising effort and has since said that he considered the money to be a "large fee that was wasted," Bernice Weissbourd, however, is more philosophical about the whole thing and more, well, attuned to looking at the expenditure as a long-range investment...

...Let’s hope he does-for his sake and ours...

...A recent survey by Business Week found that compensation for chief executive officers in 1983 rose three times faster than inflation...

...As for the work he actually performed for the money, as one Washington lawyer puts it, “If someone is willing to pay Mondale that kind of money, he’d be a fool not to take it-and so would you...

...by how he has chosen to make a living, Mondale has endorsed the same selfishness that afflicts the rest of society...

...his 1983 earnings of $316,300 were all the more remarkable given that he spent the year, full-time, running for president...

...Yet this free-market view of compensation-“I am satisfied, they are satisfied-glosses over the fact that Mondale’s “value” to a firm like Winston & Strawn has little to do with his talents as a lawyer...

...I don't think there's anybody in the country who's worked harder on the practical problems of developing public policies to support families and children than I have," Mondale responded to Babcock...

...And however meritorious their cause, should Columbia Pictures, Control Data, or any Winston & Strawn client appear to receive favorable treatment from a Mondale administration, questions are inevitable...

...For about 90 minutes of his time, that works out to nearly $10 a second...

...After putting Mondale on its board of directors, Columbia also hired Public Strategies...

...Another Mondale benefactor, Herbert Allen Jr., also helped Public Strategies...

...It's kind of hard to pinpoint the ripple effect of things," she says...

...Assorted speaking feesas much as $25,000 for one talk-earned him several hundred thousand dollars more...

...This would communicate an important message to the rest of the country...

...Mondale has sat on the boards of both Columbia Pictures and Control Data Corporation...

...He says Anstrom has worked with them on two reports "An Overview of Allocating Strategies and Arrangements: Meeting the Challenges of the 1980s" and "The Allocations Process in Review: Summary Report of Synectics Sessions" (For the uninitiated, synectics is bureacratic jargon for "brainstorming...

...The work Mondale has performed for this money was the subject of a recent story by Charles Babcock of The Washington Post...

...It is not too late for him to free himself from the attitudes and values of those with whom he has been prospering since 1980 and return to the man he was when he talked to Elizabeth Drew and rejected the politics of selfishness...

...When Babcock pressed him to detail how much time he worked for Winston & Strawn- "I asked him about nine different ways...

...It is not unreasonable to propose that a man of his social concerns might see a connection between each $2,OOO-plus monthly check he receives from a government that can’t afford it and the lack of funds for millions less fortunate...

...His own contribution to the retirement system was relatively meager and he obviously doesn’t need the money to provide for his family...

...More than 80 percent of all households in America live on less than $37,000 a year...

...From its heavily carpeted offices in Georgetown, where Gustav Klimt prints grace the walls, Public Strategies plays host to a list of clients that includes several Fortune 500 companies and prominent New York investment banks...

...The case of Family Focus' is particularly instructive...

...Mondale’s defense of his earnings-and one most people in Washington readily accept-is that he is worth the money he receives...

...Reagan doesn’t need it either...

...neither raised any money...

...Holbrooke also has other employment-he works for Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb...

...The way Mondale has become wealthy makes it impossible for him to ask the rest of us to make the sacrifices we need...

...Unless management and labor cooperate to restrain their appetites for short-term gains so our industries can compete better in international markets, America’s economy will stagnate...

...Anstrom won't reveal what he was paid for taking such good notes, though he was willing to take a stab at defining Public Strategies' work: "We analyze issues and the implications of policy for business strategies and action for nonprofit organizations and corporations...

...As someone who would be considered by many to be overpaid himself, how can Mondale be a credible critic of all those absurdly overpaid corporate executives...

...Phillip Keisling is a contributing editor of The Washington Monthly...

...Steve Delfin of United Way recently called Anstrom at Public Strategies and was greetedwith "Hello, Mr...

...On January 26, 1981, Johnson joined Dean Overman and Hurd Baruch, both attorneys with-Winston & Strawn, to form a-consulting firm called Public Strategies...

...Family Focus, a charitable organization in Chicago for teenage parents, gave Mondale $100,000 for his help in .a fund-raising effort that proved unsuccessful...

...These sessions provided, according to Nunan, a "chance to think expansively about questions:') Asked about Anstrom's specific role, Nunan replied, "His role was capturing frankly and distilling what was being said [at United Way meetings]" and "to interject consistency of definition into a variety of funding distribution strategies...

...Look around you,” he declared...

...Recipients of government entitlement programs jealously guard their benefits even if they don’t really need them...

...What’s important is the effect of his behavior on his ability to provide the leadership necessary to convince Americans to set selfish considerations aside on behalf of larger goals...

...after the 1980 results came in...

...As a former president, Gerald Ford quickly became a millionaire thanks to the many corporations who sought to add luster to their boards of directors...

...Indeed, a casual observer can't help but notice that no one seems to spend much time at the office...

...Besides, he adds, referring to one of Washington's most notorious insiders, "How much would it cost if they had to first hire Tommy Boggs to get an introduction...

...As senator and vice president, Mondale often appealed to citizens to set selfish interests aside as he pressed for more federal aid to needy children, migrant workers, and the elderly...

...All this helps explain why Mondale’s earnings have evoked so little comment in the press and among fellow candidates...

...In 1973 he told Elizabeth Drew of The New Yorker, "I don't think the average American is that selfish, and I think this is where the Nixon approach is going to go wrong...

...How many black faces do you see here, how many American Indians, how many Mexican Americans...

...Just whose office it is also is a matter of some confusion...

...It would also be a pointed challenge to Ronald Reagan, who receives a similar pension as a former governor of California...

...You would think he might suggest that people like himself be required to relinquish their entitlements to help meet the budgetary crisis and to make more money available for others in greater need...

...Recall also that Mondale himself told Newsweek that one reason he picked Johnson was that "he was at that point where he could spend full time with me...

...His failure goes deeper than that...

...In other words, that was not the basis on which I came to the firm...

...The payroll now includes Decker Anstrom, the firms "domestic policy analyst" and a former Carter appointee...

...Responding to charges of influence peddling, Mondale claimed his efforts on behalf of Northwest Energy Co...

...At Nebraska’s Creighton University, Kennedy polled his audience to find out who was in favor of deferment, and when most students raised their hands, he became indignant...

...His work for Family Focus in 1982, for which Mondale received $50,000, consisted of touring one of its centers and attending an advisory committee meeting...

...When he left public office in 1981, his net worth was just $253,000, a relatively paltry sum in comparison to that of other politicians of comparable status...

...The Chicago-based law firm of Winston & Strawn pays Mondale a retainer of $150,000 a year...

...After all, such incomes are common in Washington...

...Tom Nunan, senior vice president of the planning and allocations division at United Way, was a little more explicit...

...he also wanted their votes...

...Both Mondale and his clients generally refuse to discuss the details of his work...

...consisted of one phone call-and that simply to learn when a hearing was scheduled...

...At the present time they aren't planning to nominate such a leader either...

...Spokesmen for Columbia Pictures and Lehman Brothers refused to discuss the relationship...

...Or take entitlement programs, which divert billions to undeserving members of the middle and upper classes that would be better spent in helping the poor and in erasing the deficit...

...And in certain respects, Mondale's decision is almost a carbon copy of the course Richard Nixon followed after losing his 1962 bid to become governor of California...

...Class struggle Still, it’s important to understand that Mondale’s behavior, far from being illegal or even unethical, is perfectly consistent with the prevailing values of his peer group-those who consider themselves members of the “professional class” such as civil servants, lawyers, doctors, consultants, journalists, and the like...

...Lobbyists and trade associations ply Congress for special tax breaks and other favors on behalf of race horse owners, private pilots, commodity brokers, second home owners, and countless other special interests...

...His attack on wasteful government spending has left middle-class entitlement programs largely intact while devastating means-tested programs for the poor that were already inadequate, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children...

...Those who make $60,000 or more are among the upper 5 percent...

...Reagan has also been conspicuously blind to the self-interest shown by members of his own social class...

...If you look at any regiment or division of paratroopers in Vietnam, 45 percent of them are black...

...He has not tried to shelter his income in 6-to-1 write-off schemes involving oil wells, as William French Smith, Reagan’s attorney general, has done...

...Allen is head of Allen and Co., a New York investment firm that controlled Columbia Pictures until its sale in 1982 to Coca Cola...

...Three years later, Johnson's first venture as a "political entrepreneur" seems to have paid off handsomely...

...You’re the most exclusive minority in the world...

...So Johnson decided to do the next best thing: he became a consultant...

...I don't agree with the concept [of time spent]," he replied...

...I don't have a time card...

...Having Mondale on the payroll is a powerful lure to clients Siphoning a Living When your political mentor is out of power, and the next election is 4 years away, how do you make a living...

...Living in such a rarefied atmosphere breeds certain standards and expectations...

...Kay L. Gunderson who see an implicit promise of special access for themselves...

...His lifestyle has not changed noticeably, though he did purchase a $200,000 second home in an exclusive Minneapolis neighborhood...

...But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done...

...when consulting fees are added in, he has received $103,000 from Columbia and $134,000 from Control Data...

...HOW MONDALE MAKES HIS MONEY By Phillip Keisling During his brief presidential campaign in 1969, Robert F. Kennedy spoke often about an issue that epitomized the moral myopia of many who opposed the Vietnam war: the student deferment that made it so easy for the sons of the middle and upper classes to escape the draft...

...Johnson is obviously deeply involved in a campaign that has proven to be far less of a sure thing than once thought...