Official Washington last week was a relaxed capital, suspended in highly unofficial reveries between two holidays.
Congress was on vacation. For part of the week, President Ford was skiing in Vail. Then, like many a middleaged, Middle American couple, Betty and Jerry Ford welcomed the New Year by sitting at home in front of their television set, sipping champagne and swaying gently to the mellow music of Guy Lombardo. On New Year's Day, the Fords invited some of their Midwestern friends Michigan Senator Robert Griffin, Wisconsin's John Byrne and Melvin Laird, Minnesota's...