THE WHITE HOUSE: Ford on the Offensive

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Amid growing criticism that he was drifting and avoiding hard decisions, President Ford took the offensive on several political fronts last week.

He made extensive, energetic preparations for his economic message to the nation this week (see cover stories, THE ECONOMY). He beat back an attempt by the Senate to undercut his foreign policy. He made a startling offer to go before Congress to explain why he had pardoned Richard Nixon. He met with 22 of the nation's mayors and pledged to sign an $11.8 billion mass-transit bill. He reorganized his fumbling White House staff. Though he was obviously distracted by his wife's bout with cancer and visited her every day at the hospital, he also dined with congressional friends, threw a party for retiring members of Congress and was host at a white-tie-and-medals reception for the Washington diplomatic corps. It was a brisk display of a Chief Executive in action and, despite all his troubles, enjoying it.

The Senate revolt was directed not so much against Ford as against his predecessor and at what many regard as the clandestine tactics of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Still angered by the disclosure of the CIA's intervention in Chilean politics, Senators saw a chance to strike back when a resolution authorizing a temporary continuation of foreign aid came to the floor last week. A majority voted an amendment banning military aid to Chile. Then, by a much larger margin, the Senate voted to cut off military assistance to Turkey on the ground that U.S. weaponry had been used in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Finally, the Senate voted to stop shipments of fertilizer to South Viet Nam.

Ford was especially alarmed that the U.S. would lose leverage in the Cyprus crisis if aid to Turkey was halted. He sent staffers to Capitol Hill where they persuaded House-Senate conferees to eliminate the objectionable amendments from the resolution. Now the Senate must decide whether to accept the revised measure.

Confronted with a list of questions from Congress about the Nixon pardon, Ford could have supplied written replies or none at all. Instead, in the interest of an open presidency and in the hope of putting the issue to rest, he volunteered to testify before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee this week.* The probe will be televised. Said the delighted Democratic subcommittee chairman, William Hungate: "It is consistent with the frankness and openness he displayed as a Congressman."

Unique Occasion. Even some critics of the "imperial presidency" worry that Ford may be weakening his office by testifying before Congress. But he feels that he is giving nothing away since he is going voluntarily. As Ford explains it, since a presidential pardon of a former President is such a unique occasion, it deserves a unique explanation.