Page Four
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Pag Fur HEMICIG N DIL Weneda July ||| 30 |||975||
V-P sweepstakes: Taking aim on Rocky
Baker B rock
Kemp Rumsfeld
By GORDON ATCHESON
WASHINGTON - President
Ford last week blasted .a gov-
ernment report accosing his
administration of having no
concern for the plight of the
elderly, and claimed that he
loves old folks just as much as
the next guy.
Yet, at the same time, his
campaign director was telling a
group of reporters that Ford is
considering hooting Vice Presi-
dent Nelson Rockefeller off the
1976 ticket because he wants a
younger man in that position.
According to campaign chief
Howard "Ho" Callaway, the
thinking runs something like
this: Rockefeller, at 67, would
he too old to succeed Ford in
the White House if the President
wins a second term next year.
While there is probably more.
than a tinge of truth in that
view, it's basically a smoke
screen.
Underlying the "old age" argu-
ment is an incredihie amount of
pressure from the conservative
wing of the Republican Party to
give Rocky the heave-ho be-
cause of .his comparatively lib-
eral bent.
CONSERVATIVES h a v e de-
tested Rockefeller for a long
time, and those feelings became
solidified when he thought .about
challenging Harry Goldwater for
the presidential nomination in
1964.
In many ways Rockefeller has
tried to move to the right since
.then-or make it look like he
has. But the conservatives just
won't huy it.
Now Ford is heginning to feel
the same kind .of heat, as Ron-
ald Reagan has all hut said he
wviii fight the old Wolverine for
the right to run.
But Ford could disarm a po-
tential Reagan insurrection by
replacing Rockefeller with some
one flying more conservative
colors.
- Of course, that kind of move
would he hound to rile the mod-
erates a hit. Then again, none
of them in threatening to enter
the primaries.
"The President sincerely and
genuinely is keeping an open
mind and he may choose any
one of the good Republicans,"'
Callaway said. Be did not, howv-
ever, say whether Rockefeller
was a good Republican or who
the bad guys are.
AMONG THE names heing
tossed arouind as possible Rocke-
feller replacements are:
-Sen. Howard Baker, the
conservative f r o m Tennessee.
His strengths include a right-
leaning -posture and. a national
reputation as a crusader for
good and justice, thanks to the
Senate Watergate Committee on
which he served.
-Sen. William Brock, Baker's
counterpart in the Tennessee
- delegation.. He is also a con-
servative, hut lacks much of a
name outside his home state. As
a southerner, he would give
geographical balance to a ticket
headed by Ford.
-Rep. Jack Kemp, a Buffalo,
New York congressman who is
better remember'ed as the quar-
terback for the Buffalo Bills
professional football team. His
background is right-wing. And
with a Ford-Kemp ticket, the
people would have a duo that
could hike a football properly,
if nothing else.,
--Donald Rumsfeld, currently
the President's counselor and a
former Congressman from Illi-
nois. Out from conservative
cloth, Rumsfeld is a powerfully
ambitious man who admits he
wants to be president some day.
It wouldn't be surprising to find
that he was the first to -float
the Rumsfeld name in the Veep
sweepstakes.
--SEN. CHARLES PERCY, an
Illinois Republican who is every
bit as liberal as Rockefeller.
His name probably creeps in
just to keep the moderates from .
getting angry. But as one ob-
server remarked "if Percy re-
places Rockefeller, the Reagan
people would scream bloody
murder."
What it all boils down to is
that Ford-or at least his cam-
paign architects-are definitely
looking to the right for support.
But it's also apparent that
they aren't gazing to the far
reaches of the conservative ele-
ment or Reagan's name would
probably have come up.
Ford is trying to rally all the
troops so he can actually win a
term in office thanks ~to the
voters. After all, who wants to
Percy
go down in history' as a person
who became president only be-
cause of o t h e r politicsans'
scandals?
Gordon Atchetan is ca-
aditor-in-chief of the Daily,
working in Washington as
o summer intern for Knight
Newspapers.
To the Daily:
I READ with she greateat
aleasure Tim Schick's "Seeing
America on a Thumb a Day"
(Daily, July 26). Having hitch-
hiked through Michigan, Can-
ada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, N e w
York, Massachusetts, Maryland,
Virginia, West Virginia, N 0 r t h
Carolina, Sooth Carolina, Flor-
ida, Tennessee, Kentucky and
Indiana, I have only two com-
ments to make: don't hitch-hike
through Ohio, and wasco your
ass-
-Robert Bernard
July 26 ,
Tur~~ ke bluffstetam
'fHE RECENT turn of events in Turkey may appear
unfathomable on the surface, but the interests of the
Turkish government remain as clear as ever, The charade
of the past week, In which the Turks have attempted to
take control of U.S. installations without kicking Ameri-
can personnel out, has apparently been engineered to
force the House of Representatives to change its mind
about not lifting the arms embargo against that Asian
nation.
Hopefully, the members of the House will not be
fooled by this trickery. Past events have shown that
Turkey most likely intends to use those arms In Cyprus,
a conflict the U.S. should certainly not be involved In,
JN ADDITION, we must not be fooled by Defense Depart-
ment strategists who argue that the intelligence bases
in Turkey are vital for the security of this nation, They
contend that the U.S. gathers some 25 per cent of Ite
intelligence on the Soviet Union from Turkey, but this
claim is almost certainly a great exaggeration. We have
plenty of other sources for these very same data, so that
these bases are not all that essential for our defense.
In fact, Turkey's recent actions appear suspiciously
like a bluff. They don't seem to want our installations or
troops out, hut they are quite serious about wanting more
arms. Clearly, it's now up to the members of the House to
demonstrate that tl'is country is most serious about not
doling out arms to nations that intend to use them for
war.
Business Staf
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