It was almost a scene from a Nelson Rockefeller campaign. There were no knishes or hot dogs; the former New York Governor did not yell, "Hiya, fella!" But he was at his breezy best as he moved through the Senate committee room smiling broadly, shaking hands, slapping backs as if he did not have a care in the world, when in fact all that he had worked for in politics was at stake. His nomination for the vice presidency had been jeopardized by disclosures that he had given more than $2 million in loans and gifts to associates, most of them public officials, and that he had secretly authorized a derogatory book about his Democratic opponent, Arthur J. Goldberg, in the 1970 New York gubernatorial race. Now he had been recalled by the Senate Rules Committee to give further testimony; this week he will face harsher grilling from the House Judiciary Committee.
Some Reservations. Under pointed questioning from the Senators, who were determined not to let him off so easily as last time, Rockefeller responded with an adroit mixture of humility and hyperbole, stout defense and tactical retreat. With his customary bonhomie and no trace of arrogance, he offered a fascinating glimpse into the Rockefeller mind and lifestyle, moving G.O.P. Senator Mark O. Hatfield to comment that he had learned a lot about "the Rockefeller person." The revelations were apparently to Rocky's advantage. At the end of his first day of testimony, even his most persistent critic on the committee, West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd, said he would probably vote for confirmation "with some reservations."
In his prepared statement, the Vice President-designate tried to reassure people about his wealth. Gone was his earlier, facile claim that the economic power of his family was mere "myth." "My private wealth is, to say the least, quite great enough to be abused; that is, if I were the kind of man to do so and if the American political system permitted wealth to be used uncontrollably." But he maintained that "political authority is not for sale in America. [It] comes only from the free gift of the people when they vote for you." Poverty, too, he went on, "can blind a man or a woman. Some never rise above the hungry resentments of early hardships. Others never rise above a merely regional background to achieve a national viewpoint. I believe that my 40-year public career demonstrates that I have tried and at least partially succeeded in rising to achieve a broad national outlook."