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In this respect, Ferraro seemed at least as success ful as a previous vice-presidential candidate in a bind. Eight presidential elections ago, a young Republican Senator named Richard Nixon went on TV to justify his receipt of political donations — and of a cocker spaniel named Checkers. Nixon, of course, faced only the camera, not 200 reporters, and he had a script. With Ferraro, every thing is different, special, more consequential. The stakes are higher because whatever happens to Ferraro happens to a pioneer, a historic figure. Mondale edged close to a complaint about the intense public focus last week. "It may have occurred in the past," he said, "that when a man ran for office, they dragged the wife before the public and went through their records and their businesses the they have Mr. Zaccaro. It may have occurred, but I cannot remember when."
Ferraro wants desperately to get on with the campaign. Said she at her press conference: "I hope by Sunday, which is my [49th] birthday, we're going to start a new year." But the troubles of the past two weeks may not simply fade away. The House ethics committee could take up the question of her disclosure exemption on Sept. 12 at its final meeting of this congressional session. An inquiry is unlikely, however, since Ferraro is leaving Congress at the end of this term. There is also the Federal Election Commission, which has begun a review of the 1978 campaign loan from Zaccaro.
If investigative interest subsides, the G.O.P. may try to revive it. As Ferraro knows well, when national figures come under suspicion, the public and press fasten on to the reputed rascals and do not easily let go. There can be a rather voyeuristic zeal about such searches for official wrongdoing, and prosecutory momentum, once begun, is difficult to slow. Bert Lance, Jimmy Carter's budget director, was forced to leave office, tried and found guilty of nothing. So great is the power of stigma, however, that when Mondale tried to make him his campaign director, Lance was forced to step down within three weeks. In addition to making other serious mistakes, Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese neglected to report a $15,000 loan to his wife from a friend who later won appointment to a Government post. Meese is still under investigation by a special prosecutor, and his nomination las Attorney General is on hold. Last June, Congressman George Hansen, an Idaho Republican, was sentenced to five to 15 months in federal prison for not disclosing $334,000 he and his wife received. His violation of the Ethics in Government Act was more willful and serious, of course, than the infraction Ferraro may have committed: he might be compared to someone who hides income from the IRS, she to someone who files a tax return but makes an undeserved claim. Still, the perception of impropriety can be as ruinous as the real thing.