Jerry Ford's Lengthening Shadow

By Hugh Sidey

Jerry Ford has a shadow presidency already. It is formless as yet, nothing much more than a feeling. But its presence pervades Capitol Hill and the big departments and the White House.

It is subtly molding decisions and events. It is not Ford's doing. It comes from a growing yearning within the political system to get Richard Nixon out of office. It comes from the rush of events that batter the presidency. No one can do much about it.

A young man helping design the new Nixon welfare legislation suddenly was asked if he had considered Ford's position, since Ford might be the President responsible for that legislation. The young man had not considered it until then, but instantly he acknowledged that wisdom dictated he learn Ford's voting record on such bills.

A few weeks ago, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sent an urgent query to former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, now a Reader's Digest executive in Washington. What was Ford's private assessment of Kissinger? The answer came back: excellent. In almost every important negotiation Kissinger is asked if Nixon will survive, and if not, what will happen to Kissinger in particular and foreign policy in general.

Just last week, after the story on Ford's doubts about Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, Laird's phone jangled again. A concerned Schlesinger wanted a reading of the true meaning of Ford's speculation. Schlesinger was reassured. Ford had not liked Schlesinger's performance on the Hill, but he had high regard for his ability and felt Schlesinger could learn to do better with Congress.

There was a discernible lift in morale at the Department of Housing and Urban Development because Secretary James Lynn had been included in Ford's positive musings. At Health, Education and Welfare, the opposite was true. There had been no mention by Ford of Secretary Caspar Weinberger.

The Ford shadow presidency reaches out into the country. Barber Conable, one of the most thoughtful and able Republicans in Congress, could employ Ford every week in his district in western New York. Conable's constituents want to see and hear Ford.

Not long ago, an important sub-Cabinet officer asked a visitor about Nixon. Guilty was the answer. "I think so too," said the Nixon man. Then, almost wistfully, he mentioned the Vice President: "Jerry Ford's great."

A few days ago the Chowder and Marching Club, the Republican social and study group, met a little later for one of their discussion breakfasts, and Pollster Louis Harris was the guest. Nixon was absent, and in that cloistered environment the men were not so hesitant. They asked two basic questions: "Could the country come together under Ford?" Yes, said Harris. There would be a great honeymoon period. "If Nixon were impeached and convicted before next November," one man asked, "would a Ford endorsement help Republicans up for re-election?" Well, said Harris, it would be more effective than Nixon's recent trip to Michigan.

The American political system is built in part on contingency planning, and it could be that what is happening in Washington is nothing more than that. Yet it is another part of the tide that rises against Nixon. On the day that Spiro Agnew resigned, Mel Laird looked at his old friend Jerry Ford, then the minority leader of the House, and he said, "Jerry, some day you are going to be President." Laird insists that he was looking down the line of normal political evolution to the 1976 election. But a lot of leaders in Government are now conditioning themselves for President Jerry Ford well before that.

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