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Nemesis - Geraldine Ferraro and John Zaccaro's financial disclosures
National Review, Sept 21, 1984
A DECADE AGO, Democrats found disturbing evidence of original sin among Republicans, and took steps to root it out. Congress passed a series of laws limiting campaign spending and requiring candidates and office-holders to make detailed disclosures of their personal finances. Some of us feared the unanticipated consequences, but the Democrats charged ahead, quivering with delicious indignation over such shocking bits of sleaze as Ed Meese's cufflinks.
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Enter Geraldine Ferraro. It transpires that she has broken some of the purity laws and, perhaps illegally, circumvented others. She and her husband--the extent of her involvement in his businesses is unclear, though it is clear that she has understated it--have engaged in a number of dubious and illegal practices. It could hardly have cheered the Mondale campaign that on the night of Ronald Reagan's "coronation", John Zaccaro was shown on national television going to court to answer charges that he had, er, borrowed money from the estate of an aged widow that had been entrusted to his safekeeping. His wife insisted he had acted rightly.
How much did Fritz Mondale know, and when did he know it? Zaccaro's court date had been postponed from early July, when, as the court was well aware--though the Zaccaros say this wasn't a consideration for them--the Mondale campaign was checking out Mrs. Ferraro as a possible running-mate. Mondale aides have been deliberately ambiguous about whether they knew of John Zaccaro's legal problem in July. This is understandable. There is no good way for them to answer that question. But the best guess is that they didn't know, and that Gerry Ferraro didn't tell them.
Not all the Mondale-Ferraro-Zaccaro troubles involve mere "technicalities." There are matters of substance and tone as well, and the Queens couple face as many as seven separate investigations into their affairs. Their various explanations for what looks like a clear pattern of self-aggrandizing behavior boil down to implausible pleas of ignorance. If they are telling the truth, it is remarkable that they should so consistently profit by their blunders.
Gerry Ferraro has upstaged Walter Mondale from the start, and now she is on the cover of every major magazine in sight again. Most of the journalists are eager to give her the benefit of the doubt (the reporters at her press conference applauded her adroit if hardly satisfactory performance). The fact remains that the attention she is now getting is essentially negative. She has lost her halo. Republicans who feared the Ferraro factor last month are already hoping she won't be dropped from the ticket.
At best, Walter Mondale has shown himself to be narrow and shortsighted, from the days of his advocacy of the post-Watergate "reforms" to the vaunted selection process that brought Gerry Ferraro to his ticket. Only a fool could have insisted that candidates be judged by ethereal ethical standards; but, as they say, answered prayers bring more grief than unanswered ones. Before this campaign is over, Walter Mondale may begin to acquire the sense of irony he so clearly needs.
It is worth recalling that Watergate didn't prevent Richard Nixon from carrying 49 states in 1972. The Ferraro follies won't stop Mondale's liberal supporters from voting for him. But there is an important difference. Nixon already looked like a winner, and he was invulnerable. Mondale is a loser. The three-ring scandal he didn't anticipate and can't handle makes him look all the worse. Its likely effect will be to give millions of old-line Democrats a good excuse to cross the river to Reagan.
COPYRIGHT 1984 National Review, Inc.
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