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In the case of all the state officials, Rockefeller said in his letter, "We had identical objectives, there was no conflict of interest involved, and there was nothing illegal or immoral about either the loans or gifts."
Curious Gift. Rocky's largesse was also demonstrated in smaller ways.
When Meade Esposito, a Brooklyn Democratic leader, admired a Picasso lithograph in Rockefeller's office in Albany, Rocky sent one to him as a gift.
It was "only worth about $2,000," Esposito recalled, and when he hung it at home, his wife complained: "Christ, you're spoiling my color scheme!"
It was also revealed that the Rockefeller family has given campaign contributions to at least 22 members of the House and Senate since 1968, including $28,750 to New York's Republican Senator Jacob Javits. The contributions were completely legal. Curiously, Rockefeller's letter listed one donation of $139,090 to a trust "for the benefit of a longtime personal friend and associate on private affairs"—the only gift whose recipient he declined to identify.
Most of Rockefeller's gifts appear to have been motivated by his praiseworthy desire to keep able men in government. Nonetheless, private financial support of public officials is obviously open to wide abuse and to the appearance, if not the fact, of improper influence. Rockefeller will undoubtedly face stern questioning when the House Judiciary Committee holds confirmation hearings and when, as seems likely, the Senate Rules Committee recalls him for further testimony.
Rockefeller will be grilled, too, about a matter that smacks more directly of questionable political tactics. In 1970 his brother Laurance put up $60,000 to produce a critical biography of former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, who was running against Rocky for Governor at the time. It was written by Political Hatchet Man Victor Lasky, who had previously collected and pasted together every anti-Kennedy rumor he could find in his 1963 book, JFK: The Man and The Myth.
West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, when asked about the financing of the Goldberg book, said it was "reminiscent of the dirty tricks of the Nixon era." Rocky contends unconvincingly that he had known nothing about his brother's investment in the book until FBI agents raised questions about it during their confirmation investigation. Disingenuously, he adds that it was purely a money-making venture and that Brother Laurance lost about $52,-000 in the ill-conceived project. Actually, copies of the book never received general distribution, and even the author claimed that the book was used only by the Rockefeller campaign committee.
In a deftly worded wire to Goldberg, Rocky apologized, accepted "full responsibility for the whole regrettable episode" and termed it "utterly alien to and incompatible with the standards I have always tried to observe in my political life." Rockefeller said that he should have stopped the book project as soon as he learned about it but did not say when that was.
"The donor, rather than the recipient, must, in most cases, pay a federal tax on gifts in excess of $3,000.