GOVERNMENT: The Popping Cork

For more than a month, charges of influence peddling have swirled around Thomas G. ("Tommy the Cork") Corcoran's visits and phone calls to Federal Power commissioners in behalf of his high-paying ($5,000 per month) client, Tennessee Gas Transmission Co. Last week the cocky Cork arrived for his long-awaited performance before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight. Although he has gained weight and his hair has silvered, Tommy, now 59, showed that he has lost none of the brashness and slickness that made him a leading figure in Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal brain...