The Nation: The Rockefellers' Pile of Troubles

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The painful limits of power have never been felt more keenly by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and his youngest brother David, chairman of New York's Chase Manhattan Bank. For weeks they had been pleading for federal help to prevent a default by New York City. The personable, thoughtful banker had often traveled to Washington to meet with Ford and to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. His message: the reverberations of default could badly damage the U.S. and world economies. It was David Rockefeller, in fact, who persuaded Brother Nelson to change his mind on aid to New York; eventually the Vice President split publicly with Ford.

Last week, after the Rockefellers lost the battle, David was back minding the bank's business, while Vice President Nelson was in Tampa, Fla., acting philosophical about the defeat, a rare event for either Rockefeller. Said Rocky at a press conference: "Like so many things in life, there are different points of view and different appraisals of a similar situation—even after the fact." Thus he continued to disagree with Ford's decision to oppose a federal loan guarantee, even though the Vice President loyally declared that his boss was "in the best position to make an appraisal of what is realistically doable." The split demonstrated the unusual degree of independence that Ford has allowed Rockefeller.

Rocky's aides say that unlike many earlier Veeps, he does not have to clear his speeches with the White House, and did not clear those he made on the subject of New York. Nonetheless, when he told Washington Post Reporter Hobart Rowen last month that default would be a "catastrophe," Ford phoned Rockefeller to protest that this tough language was too much. After the reprimand, Rockefeller did not use that no-no word again, but he continued to make the same points. Reminded last week that Ford had denounced as "scare talk" predictions that default would bring economic catastrophe, Rockefeller bobbed and weaved, then said: "I am just hoping that he is right."

The brothers' defeat came at a difficult time for both. David Rockefeller's soft-selling bank has been outdistanced in assets since 1968 by New York's aggressively expansionist First National City Bank. Nelson Rockefeller has been increasingly attacked by Republican conservatives, who distrust him as an Eastern liberal, even though he has swung sharply to the right in recent years on welfare, drug use and other issues. His stand on New York further alienated the conservatives, stepping up the pressure on Ford to dump him in 1976. Moreover, New York's plight tarnishes his creative if extravagant record as Governor from 1958 through 1973 because New York State must share the blame for the city's financial mess. As Governor, Rockefeller could have blocked some of the financing gimmicks, such as unsound short-term borrowing, that got the city in trouble.