Word: omb
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...result from the forthcoming round of congressional investigations. No major bombshells are expected, but the potential for further embarrassing questions is great. In the Senate, Abraham Ribicoffs Governmental Affairs Committee will make its fourth inquiry, encompassing Lance's confirmation hearing in January, into his fitness to serve as OMB director. The last hearing (TIME, Aug. 8) was a love feast; as a committee member later put it, Lance was given a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval." Having looked foolish in the past, the committee's members can be expected to treat Lance much less gingerly this time around...
...probe a number of other areas: How could Lance have pledged the same collateral twice for separate loans from New York's Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. and Chemical Bank? Why did the Justice Department close its investigation into the Calhoun overdrafts the day before Lance was nominated as OMB director? Was it really common practice, as stated by Jody Powell, for small-town bankers to overdraw their accounts? And why was only a cursory mention made of the comptroller's investigation during Lance's confirmation hearings? Could internal memos at Manufacturers Hanover Trust be so specific about...
...with a $50,000 deposit. On Jan. 6,1977, the day that Lance's loan was approved, a memo written by J.G. Migely, the lending officer of the Chicago bank, noted that Lance had been given a $4 million line of credit, that he was to become the OMB director and that "we are delighted to have this gentleman's important business." Memos about the loan also specifically stated that "no compensating balance" was expected from the Georgia bank as a condition of Lance's loan...
...deals. It declared that referring the matter to the Justice Department had been "appropriate." After keeping the case open for nine months, however, the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta decided that there was no basis for prosecution and closed it-just one day before the announcement of Lance's OMB appointment...
Breathless Claim. This loan was the focus of the most sensational of the charges. New York Times Columnist William Safire, a former Nixon speechwriter, raised the question of whether the $3.4 million loan that was granted on Jan. 7, after Lance had accepted the sensitive OMB job, was a "sweetheart loan." Safire claimed rather breathlessly that the deal was an opportunity for the bank's chairman, A. Robert Abboud, who is extremely influential in Chicago Democratic politics, "to gain life-and-death financial control over the man closest to the President...