The Wooing of Senator Zorinsky

Or, Love's Labors Lost, a Washington comedy of manners

Edward Zorinsky, 49, is a Nebraska businessman, an instinctive booster who with bounce and bluster became the Republican mayor of Omaha. Two years ago, seeing an opportunity for greater things, he turned Democrat and captured a seat in the U.S. Senate. He attracted little notice, however, until last month, when it became known that he was undecided about how to vote on the Panama Canal treaties and that a handful of undecided Senators would soon decide the issue. TIME Correspondent Neil Mac Neil reports the consequences:

President Carter invited Senator Zorinsky to come to the White House for a private chat. "I'm counting on your support," he said.

"It's more important to convince the people I represent than me," replied Zorinsky. "They're the ones who sent me here."

All right, said the President. If Zorinsky would provide a list of 250 Nebraskans, Carter would invite them to the White House for a briefing. Delighted, Zorinsky provided the names, and 190 Nebraskans showed up at the White House a week later, to be greeted at the door by Rosalynn Carter. She shook hands with each one.

"That," said Zorinsky, "was above and beyond the call of duty."

Zorinsky was in his element. He sat and heard the President, the Joint Chiefs, the top State Department people, all brief his friends.

"The President made a total, all-out effort," said Zorinsky. But that didn't persuade him.

Then the telephone calls began.

Bob Strauss, the marvelously witty U.S. trade negotiator, telephoned Zorinsky, arguing the President's case. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance invited him to the State Department and briefed him for a full hour on the importance of the treaties.

Two weeks ago the White House telephoned again. Marshal Tito was in town. Would the Senator and his wife Cece favor the President with their presences at the state dinner? "I sat at the Vice President's table," said Ed Zorinsky.

Next came National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who briefed Zorinsky anew, this time on the possible impact of a Panama defeat on the NATO alliance. Then Sol Linowitz, the treaty negotiator, invited him to play a game of tennis--and let him win.

"I don't know," said the confused I'd Zorinsky, "whether it was my tennis prowess or his lobbying."

Still, the Senator had not convinced himself. He was not sure.

"As a businessman I have made errors," he said. "I don't want to make an error on this vote. It's too important."

The Administration didn't give up on him. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Omaha, Daniel Sheehan, telephoned at White House request, asking Zorinsky to cast his vote for the treaties. The White House signaled Henry Kissinger, and the former Secretary of State was soon purring in Zorinsky's ear. Secretary of Treasury Mike Blumenthal telephoned to say that a Senate defeat of the treaties could adversely affect the value of the dollar in international trade. Vice President Walter Mondale, of course, talked to him. Repeatedly. This was getting to be heady stuff, and Zorinsky loved it.

"I've heard from everyone but my mother," he chortled.

No one in the Administration ever suggested anything like a deal. "We don't do things that way," Mondale said.

Last Monday night Zorinsky and his wife took a couple of friends to Dominique's, a fashionable restaurant a few blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Zorinsky had just started his fillet of sole when an awed waiter approached to say that the White House was on the phone. It was the President again.

Zorinsky tried to take the call in an alcove, but the scrambling waiters and clattering dishes made it impossible. Would it be all right if he called the President after he got home? Zorinsky asked. Sure, agreed Jimmy Carter.

Zorinsky finished his fillet of sole, his coffee, and when he got home a little before 11 o'clock, he called the White House. The President was waiting.

"This is a very important vote to me," Carter told him. "I would appreciate your support. I've been counting on your support. It's going to be extremely close. You may be the 67th vote for ratification."

"Is it really that close, Mr. President?" asked Zorinsky, by way of conversation.

"I wouldn't be talking to you at 11 o'clock at night if it wasn't close." the President said.

Zorinsky still had misgivings.

Said he: "I'd feel more comfortable voting for ratification if the treaty contained an amendment guaranteeing U.S. bases in Panama beyond the year 2000."

Carter told him that the memorandum of understanding that he had already negotiated with Panama would have the same impact as such an amendment.

"If that's the case," asked Zorinsky, "what objection do you have to an amendment to the treaty?"

Carter explained that the U.S. didn't want to force Panama into a new plebiscite on an amended treaty. Zorinsky said he hadn't liked it when every amendment proposed on the Senate floor was resisted with this argument.

"My concern is for the American people I represent," he said.

"This isn't the best treaty we can get."

The next morning Zorinsky told a New York Times reporter that he would vote for the treaty only if it contained the kind of amendment he had mentioned to Carter. Word quickly spread that Zorinsky had made up his mind and was a no vote.

Secretary of Defense Harold Brown telephoned the Senator, explained the situation once more. Zorinsky relented, shifted back to uncommitted status. He no longer insisted on that amendment, but he was still on the fence.

"I have a conservative state." he explained. "Politically, there would be less heat from those favoring the treaties than from those opposed. I can go either way."

Tuesday night the telephone rang in the Zorinsky apartment in northwest Washington. It was Frank Moore, the chief White House liaison man with Congress. The President wanted to see Zorinsky again. Would he come in the next morning? Now Zorinsky balked. Thanks, he said, but he'd rather not.

An hour later the phone rang again.

It was Rosalynn Carter calling Cece. For 15 minutes the President's wife talked to the Senator's wife.

"My wife admired Mrs. Carter for working as a team with her husband," the Senator said. "But she had to say that she had no influence over me."

The next morning, at Zorinsky's office, there was a call from Hamilton Jordan. The President still wanted to see him.

"I prefer not to," Zorinsky said. "I think the time has come to make the decision by myself rather than be with the President. I don't want him to influence my judgment."

Zorinsky went off to meet a group of 200 Nebraska farmers, who were in Washington with many others to pressure Congress for higher farm prices. Many of them urged him to make a deal: higher prices in exchange for the Panama treaties. Zorinsky balked. Said he: "Once I do that, that will establish what I am, and only leave the price to be negotiated. I don't want to be seen by the White House or anyone else as a Senator who has his price."

At Wednesday's meeting with the farmers, Zorinsky got another call from the White House, this time from Carter himself. The President asked him to come to the White House for a talk.

"I don't really think I should," Zorinsky told him.

"I've got openings at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30," said Carter.

"All right," said Zorinsky. "I'll take the 11:30."

"We'll send a car to pick you up," said Carter.

When he went to meet the White House car at the corner of First Street and Delaware Avenue, no car appeared. He waited ten minutes, then he tried several other chauffeur-manned cars parked near by. "Are you looking for Senator Zorinsky?" he asked. None were. He went back to his office.

A White House liaison man came rushing in to explain that the car had been at the wrong spot and now was ready. He added, "The President is waiting to see you."

Zorinsky balked again. He was irritated by the mistake. "Another instance of White House inefficiency!" he snorted.

Carter's aides persisted. Zorinsky declined another invitation that afternoon. He finally agreed to go to the White House again at 8 o'clock Thursday morning, the day of the vote. By then, of course, the Senate leaders felt sure they had the 67 votes.

"Congratulations," Zorinsky greeted the President, offering his hand, "on getting 67 votes."

But the Senators had not yet announced, and Carter still wanted Zorinsky's vote.

"Can I have your commitment for a vote before you leave the White House?" Carter asked.

"I couldn't do that," Zorinsky hedged.

His was the last name on the Senate roster, and when his name was called that afternoon, he voted no.

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