"Thank God Almighty..."

Carter puts a pro in charge

Jimmy can't make it without you," said one Carter intimate. "I have no alternative," said the President. And so, almost inevitably, Robert S. Strauss last week gave up his frustrating assignment as Special Ambassador to the Middle East and took up an equally complicated job that he will like much better: running Carter's re-election campaign. Sighed a Democratic National Committee staffer: "Thank God Almighty, Strauss at last."

Carter first discussed the campaign chairmanship with Strauss earlier this year, but the garrulous Texan hankered after a more statesmanlike job. He won the Middle East assignment last April, but when he discovered that his down-home diplomatic style did not produce quick results, he grew restless. Spurred on by White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan and Confidant Charles Kirbo, Carter again asked Strauss to take charge of his re-election effort. This tune the former Democratic Party chairman agreed, but demanded the freedom to run the campaign as he saw fit. Carter's reply, says Strauss, was "to sign over a power of attorney. He told me to go into business and just get him re-elected."

Strauss, 61, becomes the third proprietor of that trouble-ridden business in less than a year: Evan Dobelle, 34, former U.S. Chief of Protocol, headed the re-election committee for six months after it was formed last March, then was judged too lightweight; Tim Kraft, 38, Carter's assistant for political affairs, took over in September, then was judged too abrasive. Both will remain with the committee, Dobelle as a fund raiser and Kraft as director of field operations.

At the grubby Carter headquarters on 14th and K streets, Strauss inherits a campaign seriously short of cash: almost all of the $2 million raised so far has been spent. Indeed the committee has been in some danger of missing its next payroll. Strauss named Lee Kling, 40, a veteran Democratic operator, as campaign treasurer, and together the two hope to raise $3 million by the end of the year.

Strauss's strategy for the moment is to avoid arm twisting and simply to cajole waverers into delaying any endorsements for now. He is convinced that time will eventually level Ted Kennedy. Says he: "If Jimmy Carter has to run on his record, Kennedy has to run on his."

Indeed, the whole prospect ahead is beginning to look more attractive to the White House than it has for several months. In contrast to recent opinion polls that have shown Carter trailing badly, the President trounced Kennedy, 71% to 26%, in a straw poll conducted at Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner; though no convention delegates were at stake, the event demonstrated the Carter camp's ability to organize its supporters in what will soon be a pivotal state. The President also snapped up an offer from the Des Moines Register last week to debate with Kennedy in the Civic Arena on Jan. 7, two weeks before Iowa Democrats begin to choose their delegates. Though it is an unprecedented gamble for an incumbent President to debate a challenger for his own party's nomination, White House aides are convinced that the President's skill at fielding questions will outdo Kennedy's superior oratory. The President also displayed his new tone of aggressive confidence during a White House dinner, when he bluntly told his Cabinet officers that he expected all political appointees to campaign for him. Those who will not, Carter hinted, should resign.

To replace Strauss in the stalled Middle East negotiations, Carter chose Sol M. Linowitz, 65, a Washington lawyer and former chairman of Xerox. Though Linowitz, like Strauss, has had little experience in the Arab world, his diplomatic credentials are impressive. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States from 1966 to 1969 and, along with Ellsworth Bunker, negotiated the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance first offered him a similar Middle East post in 1978, shortly before the Camp David summit, but Linowitz turned it down because he did not believe that a special envoy could break the impasse that then existed between Egypt and Israel.

He accepted the position this time because Carter emphatically told him that he was "the best man for the job." On reflection, Linowitz agreed that being Jewish was not really a problem: "As a Jew, I am still open-minded and able to deal fairly with all kinds of issues." Unlike Strauss, who insisted on reporting only to the President, Linowitz requested that he work through Cyrus Vance, an old friend.

Linowitz also gets along well with National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has lately been asserting himself forcefully in foreign policymaking. If he lacks the effervescence of Strauss, Linowitz is more the conciliator. That bodes well for his new mission.

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