Nation: That Mishandled Marston Affair

Broken promises and misstatements put Carter on the spot

"If I ever tell a lie, if I ever mislead you, if I ever betray a trust or a confidence, I want you to come and take me out of the White House."

—Candidate Carter in 1976

As Republicans rubbed their hands in glee, the Carter Administration last week found itself trying to explain away a skein of presidential lies. In a letter to Justice Department investigators looking into the firing two weeks ago of Philadelphia's Republican U.S. Attorney, David Marston, Carter last week corrected a misstatement he had made during a nationally televised press conference on Jan. 12. Republican Congressmen saw an opportunity to duplicate last summer's damaging controversy over Bert Lance's financial peccadilloes, and to lay siege again to what was once the President's pride: his credibility.

It was Carter's own fault. During his campaign he rashly declared, "All federal judges and prosecutors should be appointed strictly on the basis of merit without any consideration of political aspects or influence." Such appointments are traditionally made on a frankly political basis, and once Carter was ensconced in the Oval Office, that tradition was fully honored. Of the first 65 U.S. Attorneys named by the new Administration, 64 were Democrats. As House Speaker Tip O'Neill put it, "That's the way the System works." And, he might have added, the way Congressmen and Governors want it to work, no matter who is President.

Carter got himself in trouble by making two serious mistakes. Several times he told less than the truth about his role in expediting the removal of Marston. Then, after admitting he was asked to fire Marston by one of the prosecutor's targets of investigation, Democratic Congressman Joshua Eilberg of Pennsylvania, Carter did it anyway.

William Safire, New York Times columnist and former Nixon speechwriter, who believes in equal opportunity for Democrats to have their own Watergate, raised familiar questions: What did he know? When did he know it? In this case, they were fair questions. Affidavits released last week showed that a veteran Justice Department official, Russell Baker Jr., had been notified by Marston's office as early as last Aug. 17 about an investigation involving Eilberg, a powerful House Judiciary subcommittee chairman. Eilberg's Philadelphia law firm had received a handsome $500,000 in legal fees while helping to obtain federal financing for a new hospital in the city. Also involved in the project and the investigation into it was another prominent Pennsylvania Democrat, Congressman Daniel

Flood. It was revealed last week that a former Flood aide, after being granted immunity from further prosecution, accused the Congressman of trading his influence for $100,000 in cash and bank stock.