(3 of 10)
Even so, Lance had not erased his image as a wheeler-dealer who had used his presidency of two Georgia banks in ways that do not measure up to Carter's much-professed insistence that members of his Administration must avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Observed one Southern Democratic Governor: "It was a damned effective performance, and people will be with him emotionally. That may save Bert's reputation personally and Jimmy Carter's reputation politically, but the President has big jobs to do and he must get on with them with no handicaps." There was a widespread view that Lance had done much to help himself but still remained too great a liability to Carter and should leave his post. Declared Arkansas Governor David Pryor: "Lance has been caught in a cobweb situation. I think he is a totally honorable man, but I feel that if he is director of OMB, he will spend four years explaining and defending himself."
But it would be nearly impossible — and unfair — for Carter to take the position that Lance, though innocent of wrongdoing, must go because all the controversy has damaged him. That is precisely what Lance so shrewdly and dramatically warned against during the hearings: driving an innocent man from office on flimsy charges. The fact is that the main charges are not flimsy, and the country is not likely to so regard them.
TIME bureau chiefs saw little possibility that Lance had turned the tables enough to survive in office. Observed New York's Laurence I. Barrett: "About the best that Lance can hope for is to create a feeling that, well, the poor fellow is not that bad. But he still represents an intolerable symbol of loose ethics in an otherwise taut Carter Administration vessel." Added Boston Senior Correspondent Jim Bell: "Bert Lance's presentation was a fine, feisty thing that did him a lot of good. In the end he will still have to go, but his departure may be less painful than seemed possible at midweek." Reported Chicago's Benjamin Gate: "Despite Lance's aggressive and combative defense, he hasn't done very much to reassure Midwestern businessmen and bankers about his qualifications to be the chief budget officer of the U.S. At the moment, his credibility in this area is nil."
Back home in Calhoun, however, the folks were all solidly behind Bert. On the eve of his opening testimony, almost 1,500 people from the prosperous town (pop. 6,000) in the north Georgia mountains turned out at the high school to wave placards (DON'T TREAT BERT LIKE DIRT), sing his praise and pray for his deliverance from Yankee politicians and the press. Said Mayor Billy Burdette: "We just want the other people in the country to know what kind of man Bert is —to know him as we know him—to know he is not a crook."
If anything, the interest in Lance was greater in Washington. As Lance's show-down session with the Senate committee began, the crush of reporters and photographers was as intense as at John Dean's initial Watergate testimony before another Senate committee. Holding hands with his smiling and poised wife LaBelle, Lance strode into Room 1202 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where, at his request, 40 seats had been reserved for his relatives and friends.