Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 29, 1977 Page: 5 of 24
twenty four pages : ill. ; page 20 x 16 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
jess jawin Carter Press Conference
Continued from page 1 PART TWO
Here were articulate Joan Claybrook, an attorney by profession, a former
1 Nader raider and now Administrator of National Highway Traffic Safety;
■ Patricia Bauer, petite and cute, who was picked to write the White House
News Summary, a small digest prepared especially for the President which
he reads each night. Included were Larry Gilson, Associate Assistant to the
President from the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, who is playing a
great role in “Federal Grants-In-Aid-Reform” and Dale Leibach who has
charge of advance press arrangements for all of the President's trips out of
^ Washington.
Ellsworth Bunker was supposed to brief us on the Panama Canal Treaty
but because of a hearing engagement on the Hill, Richard R. Wyrough
substituted for Bunker. A member of the negotiating team, Wyrough had
an impressive army career of 24 years before he retired and joined the
| Department of State and became the Deputy Director and Senior Adviser
I for Treaty Affairs in the Office of Panamanian Affairs.
Following these briefings it was time for lunch which was served in the
Deputy Press Secretary Walter Wurfel’s office.
What about lunch? There were cold cuts, baked beans, potato salad, soft
v drinks and coffee. Some pastries topped the menu - all served buffet-style
I on what even could have been some bridge or extra utility cables strung
together. Just what you’d do if you had some special friends in and tried to
utilize what you had.
Following lunch we two-by-twoed over to the mansion after our
credentials were rechecked.
| Now were were in the Cabinet Room.
This was the White House, and next to this office was the Oval Office,
where presumably, the world’s greatest decisions are made.
The twenty-eight male newsmen and one newswoman coming from 21
states and Puerto Rico were seated. Those who couldn’t garner cabinet
| officer chairs seated themselves along the wall. The stenotypist and tape
I recorder technicians entered. Then in a white shirt, open collar and tie,
sleeves half rolled up, Jody Powell came in with greetings.
Jody looked like he’s been buring the midnight oil - and he has. He was a
few minutes late and he apologized for it. “I’m sorry.”
We told him, “Jody, this is the second time in 24 hours that you’ve had to
| say I’m sorry!”
The remark referred to his apology to Senator Percy [R.I11.] whom Jody
accuses of campaign shenannigans the day before and he had to apologize
for it.
Jody laughed. He has that wholesome boyish look and grin that can disarm
I a detractor. He offered a comment on his apology to Senator Percy:
I “General Brown [George Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and noted for
his ambiguous and unsubstantiated remarks] offered me a position to do his
press work if things didn’t work out.”
This brought a roar from the newspeople and staff. Someone asked about
how things were going with the Bert Lance hearings. Jody said the White
House phone calls were running three to one in favor of Bert Lance. He
1said’ “He’s a remarkab,y decent individual’'
Someone was ready to pop another question on Lance but in strided the
President. We all stood up.
President Carter said, “Go ahead, finish, Jody.”
£ “No.” Jody laughed.
President Carter took over and after a short welcome covered an
assortment of topics including the state visit of the French Prime Minister,
meetings with the heads of 19 Latin American countries on the Panama
Canal Treaty, the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Dayan, the new
cabinet addition: Department of Energy, welfare and tax reform. The
_ President said he had been “concerned” about the “Bert Lance case” but it
I did not “interfere” with his functions. Nor did he believe Lance allowed it to
■ “interfere with his functions as the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget.”
The first question the President took showed that the grass roots press
corps can cut right through the chaf. How would he resolve the Bert Lance
affair?
We must remember this was asked while Lance was still answering
questions before the Senate Committee.
One could easily see that the Lance Affair distressed the President. It was
almost like the classical, “which door does one choose.” He was soon going
to be called upon to make a choice. Here was a close friend - almost like “a
brother” being pilloried for things which were unproved “allegations.” The
President also did not understand why a person, innocent of charges, should
be, because of “incorrect” accusations damaged by negative publicity.
The President was reminded of the overdrafts and was asked whether
overdrafts were a common practice in Georgia. In fact he was asked if he
ever became involved in overdrafts himself.
The President said, “I can’t say that I depended on overdrafts to run my
my business, but as I have said in one of my regular news conferences that
was televised, yes, I have had overdrafts. Let me add one other thing.
“There is a fairly common practice - I am not trying to criticize banks
because I don’t know how wide the practice is - but there is a general sense
at home, not because it is in the south but because I live in a small town,
that if you have several accounts and a substantial balance in all those
accounts but then you become overdrawn in one of those accounts, then
that is not considered to be an illegal or unethical act.
“I run, I would say in my business, six or seven individual accounts,
different aspects of my farm or warehouse business. Also, I have a personal
account. I never write any checks. I haven’t written three checks in the last
five years. My wife does all the check writing. But if we should have $50,000
or $100,000 in my warehouse account, and in my own personal account my
wife should buy a dress and give a $25 check to pay for it and the check
bounced because we were overdrawn, they would not send for the sheriff or
call me on the phone and say, ‘You have disgraced yourself by having an
overdraft.’ They will say, in effect, ‘We will honor this check. We will put a
notice in your mailbox and you can shift some money from your warehouse
account over into your personal account.’
“But I don’t excuse overdrafts. It is obvious I would rather for my own life
to have been completely free of any overdrafts. But I can’t say that it is an
acceptable thing. But I still don’t believe that it is an unethical or illegal
thing in the banking circles in which I have tried to operate.”
The President was asked if he planned any travel - especially to Puerto
Rico and he said he had hoped to go to Latin America but he did not have an
“specific date.” [A few days ago President Carter’s extensive November
travel plans were revealed.]
The President fielded questions on sugar tariffs [he was against them], tax
reform [there would be a comprehensive “tax package” shortly], and finally
one on the Middle East from this writer.
We told the President that many Jews across the nation were
apprehensive about his policies. We said that there appeared to be an
“embracement” of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s position with
regard to their pledge for the destruction of the State of Israel. We
reminded the President of his New Jersey speech on Israel in 1976.
>
O
ffl
H
X
c
73
>
O
s*
VO
-J
—1
H
M
X
>
C/5
3
m
H
The President said that this was “one of the most distorted assessments of
our own policy that I have heard.”
We reminded the Chief Executive that it was not necessarily “my
assessment, but it is incumbent upon me to bring it to you<“
The President followed with an affirmation of his own views on a Peace
Settlement in the Middle East and made the clearest policy statement with
regard to the PLO since he assumed the Presidency.
His statement follows in full:
“I have never endorsed the PLO. Our government has had no
communication at all directly with the PLO. The only communication has
been when representatives of the PLO have been to Arab leaders
immediately prior to Cy Vance s visit with them or their visit to our country
and have delivered messages to us indirectly.
“Our agreement with the Israeli Government several years ago before I
became President was that we would not communicate with the PLO as
long as they did not refute their commitment to destroy the nation of Israel
and did not accept the right of Israel to exist. Our public position is the same
as our private position. There is no difference between them.
We have said if the PLO would accept publicly the right of Israel to exist
and exist in peace, as described under United Nations Resolution 242, that
we would meet with them and discuss the future of the Palestinians in the
Middle East. We have never called on the PLO to be part of the future
negotiations. We have said that the Palestinian people should be
represented in the future negotiations. That is one of the three major
elements of any agreement that might lead to lasting peace — one is the
territorial boundaries; one is the Arab countries accepting Israel to live in
peace as neighbors: and the other one is that there be some resolution of
the Palestinian question.
I have never called for an independent Palestinian country. We have
Continued on page 17
'ry
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Wisch, J. A. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 29, 1977, newspaper, September 29, 1977; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753221/m1/5/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .