Re-electing Rooney

Few men on Capitol Hill generate as much fear and frustration as Congressman John James Rooney. In the 17 years that he has chaired the powerful House Subcommittee on Appropriations for State, Justice, Commerce, the Judiciary and related agencies, the diminutive Democrat from Brooklyn has made a career of slashing budget requests, especially those of the State Department. It was Rooney who coined the famous expression "booze allowance" for diplomats' representational allowance—money allotted for official entertaining. His blistering interrogations have left battered and bloodied almost two generations of officialdom. Despite his tortuous quizzings and penurious disposition, Rooney, 65, has his advocates in Foggy Bottom. Financially, at least. Last week a report on the contributors to his 1969 primary campaign showed that a slew of senior State Department officials have chipped in to re-elect Rooney. Among them: Angier Biddle Duke, Ambassador to Denmark, $100; Perry Culley, Consul General in Paris, $300; Charles Manning, Consul General in Bermuda, $1,000; William Foster, Director of the U.S. Arms Control and Dis armament Agency, $300; Michel Cie-plinski, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administrative Affairs, $500; Frank Meyer, Special Assistant for Congressional Relations, $400. In all, 13 State Department officials and the wife of the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration, Idar Rimstad, contributed $4,175 to the Rooney coffers.

The contributions were perfectly legal. By making their donations to a citizen group for Rooney rather than to the candidate himself, the donors did not violate the Hatch Act provision prohibiting direct political contributions. Nonetheless, as the Washington Post argued, "The giving of campaign contributions under such circumstances is not far removed from a genteel bribe. And the taking of them is bound to strike some people, starting with us, as something very like a political shakedown." Rooney sailed off to Japan for one of his regular inspections. In Tokyo he will confer with Ambassador U. Alexis Johnson and look for luxuries lurking in embassy operations.

Will the donations soften Rooney's penny-pinching predilections? Rimstad doesn't think so. "I don't think it makes any difference one way or the other. He will damned well do as he pleases."