THE ADMINISTRATION: Going to Bat for Beleaguered Bert

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A possible further problem for Lance is that as OMB chief he has often relied for air transport on the planes of corporate friends, some of whom are bankers. On April 24 he flew—without charge—from Atlanta to San Francisco in the private jet of Cox Enterprises, one of whose major shareholders is Anne Cox Chambers, Jimmy Carter's choice for Ambassador to Belgium. On May 17 he flew from Washington to Knoxville, Tenn., and back aboard the private jet of Knoxville's United American Bank, from which Lance has a $443,000 loan outstanding. Then the plane ferried Lance and his wife to New York. Later, a plane owned by Atlanta Newspaper Distributor Edward Elson flew the couple back to the capital, gratis.

When Lance faced the Senate committee last week, it seemed briefly that he might receive a harsh grilling on most of those topics. Said Delaware Republican William Roth Jr.: "What bothers me is that the agreement [Lance's sale promise] was announced with great fanfare, but when the going gets rough, there's a request for an extension." Republican Charles Percy asked whether Lance's pronouncements on bank prime rates involved the "appearance of possible conflict of interest" and attempted to bore in further. But Georgia's Sam Nunn interjected: "How far can you extend this logic? There's no place in the world where he can put his money where it won't be affected by his decisions."

Otherwise, the committee barely laid a glove on Lance. Summed up Ohio Senator John Glenn: "I think we've gone ethics-happy up here. It's beginning to reach the point where cash is the only acceptable asset for a public official, and you have to keep it at home because if you put it in a bank it might be affected by your decisions."

If Glenn is right, it would be difficult to deny that a key figure in the ethics binge has been Lance's boss, Jimmy Carter. Even the President, however, seemed ready to bend his rigid rules a bit. As he noted at his press conference last week in connection with another touchy subject, "There are many things in life that are not fair"*—and perhaps he has come to recognize that one of those things may be his demand that Lance rid himself so precipitately of his stock holdings. The President's decision to relax his demand for Lance's sake undoubtedly aroused sympathy among Democrats on the committee. Besides, the gregarious Lance seems to have made a favorable impression on a great many Congressmen during his six months in Washington. Said a White House source: "If this had happened in January, Bert probably couldn't have survived. But now he's made a lot of friends in Congress."