Much Ado About Deaver

Pity, if you can, Michael Deaver. Last week he surrendered the White House pass that Ronald Reagan had allowed him to keep when he left the Administration a year ago. He has stopped receiving the President's daily- appointments schedule. For fear of embarrassing the First Family, he says, he no longer feels free to use the White House tennis court. Deaver has also had to break off negotiations for an $18 million sale of his consulting firm to a British public relations conglomerate, Saatchi & Saatchi. And if that were not enough bad news, the General Accounting Office reported last week that he may have violated federal conflict-of-interest laws that carry criminal penalties.

The former White House deputy chief of staff turned high-priced lobbyist continues to maintain steadfastly that he has not abused his close relationship with Reagan. But at week's end, when Deaver tried to make his way into the Capitol to defend his actions before a closed-door session of a congressional subcommittee, he found himself at the center of a rising storm over influence peddling in Washington. Reporters mobbed him, cameramen jostled him, and flashing strobe lights so blinded him that he walked right past the committee-room door. "After five months of rumor, leaks and innuendo," Deaver bravely declared, "today is my day." But it was clear that the media's feeding frenzy had just begun and that the capital had been seized by one of its periodic fits of morality.

The flap over Deaver may have more to do with what he represents than what he did. "He's just a symbol of what's wrong with our system," says Democratic Senator David Pryor of Arkansas. "There's a sense we've all allowed this situation with lobbying fees, big-money elections and influence peddling to get out of control."

Deaver is the target of probes by the GAO, the Justice Department and the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. At issue is whether he illegally represented private clients on matters he dealt with as an Administration official. Deaver has asked that an independent counsel be appointed to look into the charges.

Among other matters, the congressional probers are investigating: Deaver's role in negotiating a settlement for the Daewoo Corp., a big South Korean steel- maker that violated American import restrictions; his efforts on behalf of Rockwell International to persuade the Government to buy more B-1 bombers; and his lobbying for Puerto Rico to retain tax breaks worth $600 million a year to the island's economy. So far, the investigations have publicly produced no evidence of wrongdoing. They have stirred up some smoke, however, by poking into Deaver's efforts on behalf of Canada concerning the issue of acid rain.