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If the criteria for an exemption are really so strict that she does not merit one, Ferraro suggested, then the other 17 House members who claim it should be set right, too. "You can carry it to the full extreme," she said, and the law would require that "you have two separate refrigerators." The exemption criteria do indeed seem impossibly narrow. Says a male Mondale adviser: "It's a man's law, written by men with men in mind." The system isn't set up to deal with two-income families." But sensible or not, the rules are clear, and have been on the books for several years. Ferraro said at the press conference that she had read those rules, "believe it or not, as recently as last May."
Despite losing her way on that issue, Ferraro gradually won over the reporters. One moment showed that she was home free: when she was rather slow in answering a question from Wall Street Journal Editorial Writer Gregory Fossedal, and Fossedal shouted at her, "Answer it!" he was booed by fellow journalists.
Francis O'Brien, a Mondale aide who is managing the Ferraro damage-control operation, let the session drag on and on, correctly figuring that the impression of candor would be reinforced by her total submission to the process. Finally, O'Brien suggested that things wind up in five more minutes. "How about 15 minutes?" Ferraro countered. But even before that time limit, the questions petered out. After an hour and 40 minutes, longer than any press conference reporters could recall, it was over. Backstage, Ferraro hugged every aide and adviser in sight.
The rest of the week had its small ups and downs, but her public triumph sustained her. When Press Secretary Pat Bario was fired, the candidate was magnanimous. "I love her," she said of her ex-spokeswoman. "She's terrific. Evidently there was a little chemistry that didn't work." Ferraro's main campaign event, a speech to 3,000 members of the American Federation of Teachers in Washington, was a cinch to be successful. She is a former teacher and AFT member. "Normally I begin a speech by saying I'm delighted to be here. After this week," she told the cheering, chanting union members, "I have to tell you I am absolutely thrilled."
Zaccaro's week did not finish so buoyantly. In a New York City courtroom on Thursday, he was obliged to explain his questionable performance as the paid, court-appointed conservator of an elderly woman's assets: in the past year Zaccaro borrowed $175,000 from her funds to use in his business. He reported the loans to a representative of the court, and when notified that he had acted improperly, paid the money back promptly with 12% interest. He did nothing illegal, but the judge could remove him as conservator. Said a New York banker: "He's an honest man with poor judgement."