AssessmentWXPost at Five Months JUN 2 • 1974 rage throughout the coun- try. Last February he said Saxbe Shows Independence that if law authorities knew where kidnap victim Patri- By Susanna McBee was steeped in it—having you'll really see some ac- cia Hearts was being held, Washington Post Staff Writer been Secretary of Defense complishments." "we'd go get her," and that Attorney General William and of Health, Education The Attorney General un- her family should not ac- quiesce in the demands of B. Saxbe passed a small, un- and Welfare before taking derlined that desire by start- ing a recent interview with her captors, the Symbionese noticed milestone yesterday. over the Justice Department Liberation Army. These re- It was the day his tenure as last July. this comment: "I kind of set head of the Justice Depart- six months as an arbitrary marks came when the ment equaled the entire And if the press, religious figure that it would take me Hearst family, backed by groups, the Randolph A. to get acquainted with the the FBI, was in delicate ne- term served by his predeces- Hearst family and the FBI sor, Elliot L. Richardson. office, and I think I was gotiations with the SLA. have pounced on Saxbe for about right." Later he said the SLA is a 'Saxbe's defenders in the various headlong remarks department don't like to Interviews with him and bunch of "common crimi- about such diverse subjects nals" and "Miss Hearst is a talk about the milestone be- as Patricia Hearst and Jew- other high-level department cause they say it conjures • officials lead to the conclu- part of it" in that she was ish intellectuals, well, his not a reluctant participant up an unfair comparison be- defenders insist, at least sion that despite his unfor- tween the down-home, to- tunate attacks of foot-in- in an April 15 SLA holdup he's open and candid. Cer- of a San Francisco bank. bacco-chewing, shoot-from- tainly, they note, he's more mouth virus and his admit- the-hip incumbent and the accessible to the press than ted failure to grasp all the That pronouncement, two urbane, pipe-smoking, cau- any other Attorney General, problems of his complex de- days after the holdup, may tious Richardson. including Richardson. partment, he has begun to turn out to be correct, but make some important con- most high officials in the de- They argue that Saxbe Saxbe and his defenders never had any executive de- tributions. partment feel that the At- want another five weeks be- Under Saxbe, the depart- torney General of the partment experience before fore he is assessed. "Just becoming Attorney General ment is probably freer of United States had no busi- wait till he's been in six ness saying it. on Jan. 4, while Richardson months," said one, "and See SAXBE, A4, Col. 1 Though Saxbe later claimed otherwise, one SAXBE, From Al knowledgeable official said FBI had promised to pro- flatly, "He didn't have the White House domination tect. Ultimately, the files facts at the time to make than it has EVER been—a were turned over with the that statement." situation that may be due names deleted. FBI officials more to White House FBI Director Kelley preoc- felt they had won a victory, stated publicly his fears that cupation with saving Presi- but department officials dent Nixon from impeach- saw Saxbe's "common criminal" the incident as an example charge might stimulate the ment than to any action of of Saxbe's effort to assert SLA to "additional activi- Saxbe's. his dominance. ties" to try to show it was a Nevertheless, the Attor- Without much discussion, political, rather than a crim- ney General has shown Saxbe has continued Rich- inal, group. strong independence on sev- ardson's proscription eral important issues—he in- Another time Saxbe re- against campaigning or par- vealed he had postponed a sisted on public release of a tisan speeches by top de- trip to Mexico because a department study • on im- partment officials. peachment despite White young American diplomat House reluctance; he has When William Bart Sax- there, John Patterson, had strongly supported Water- be, a former Republican been kidnaped. After Sax- gate Special Prosecutor Senator from Ohio, became be's disclosure March 27, an the Nixon administration's outraged State Department Leon Jaworski, and he has supplied details of the kid- ruled that while the Inter- fourth full-time Attorney General, he found the de- naping, including the fact nal Revenue Service may re- that it had been kept secret fuse to give the House Judi- partment in low public es- teem. Two of his predeces- to comply with the captors' ciary Committee t h e Presi- demands. dent's tax audit, the commit- sors, John N. Mitchell and tee can get it in other ways. Richard G. Kleindienst, had Saxbe may have taken un- been tainted by the Water- due blame one aide said, be- Saxbe's decisions are seen gate scandal, and Richard- cause an Office of Manage- in the department as fair. son had resigned rather ment and Budget official Deputy Attorney General than obey President Nixon's had told the Attorney Gen- Laurence H. Silberman said, order to fire former Water- eral of the Mexico crime but "He calls each decision in a gate Special Prosecutor Ar- had not warned him that it neutral, professional fashion chibald Cox. was secret. without regard, as much as Saxbe has often said his possible, to political im- Early the next month he pact." main goal is to restore pub- told reporters that in the lic confidence in the depart- McCarthy era the "Jewish The Attorney General is ment, which he has called intellectual" was "very ena- seeking to raise professional -the heart and soul of the mored of the Communist standards in the department country" in as much as it Party." When Jewish and by starting an in-house administers federal law en- other religious organizations training program to improve forcement programs and objected, Saxbe issued a the presentation of cases in igives legal advice to all clarification that offended court, by visiting U.S. attor- other U.S. agencies. them even more, a state- cials across the country to ment that Jewish intellectu- learn their problems, and by Asked the other day if he thinks he has succeeded, he als' sympathy for the Soviet upgrading the U.S. marshals replied, "Not. yet. But I Union has waned "because into a career service. of the Soviet posture toward He has established a per- think it's a long haul, and I issues of importance to sonal relationship with FBI think we've got a start." Jews." Director Clarence M. Kelley Several high officials, That remark led an aide and is working to make the however, are not so optimis- to Sen. Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) bureau a cooperating part of tic. One said flatly that to wonder if the Attorney swerable to no one. Sax'be has not restored con- General was taking "dumb Earlier this year, when fidence in the department. pills." the FBI balked at a federal "It's regrettable," he said, As a result of the criti- judge's order to turn over "but his foot-in-mouth prob- files in the trial of two In- lems have had the opposite dian leaders of the occupa- effect." tion of Wounded Knee, S.C., Another remarked, "Can- Saxbe reportedly told bu- dor is achnirbale . . . but reau officials, "Damn it, lawyers' candor is con- turn over the files." trolled. They're not country- The bureau had objected boy candid They're sophisti- because the' files contained cated candid, and a guy who the names of informants the uses his words loosely is looked upon almost as dan- gerous." Saxbe's words have sent shudders throughout the de- Dartment and cries of out- R. (Rocky) Saxbe, who won ernment wiretaps by stating the Republican nomination flatly that journalists were for a seat in the state legis- wiretap targets during the lature last month. Kennedy and Johnson years "I knew it was difficult as well as in the Nixon ad- for him wherever he went ministration. because he'd be asked, When pressed for details, `What do you think about' he backed off, and finally some statement I had concluded, "I can't -say that made," Saxbe recalled. The for certain." "Jewish intellectual" re- On May 1, delivering a mark must have caused spe- Law Day address in Colum- cial problems "because his bus, Ohio, he said his previ- wife's Jewish. But he ous statement that Patricia toughed it out. He didn't 'Hearst was a willing partici- call me or anything, but I pant in the San Francisco was embarrassed to have bank robbery was based on put him on the spot." "substantial and supportive Saxbe said he still has a evidence." But just before feeling of "bafflement" over giving the speech, he had WILLIAM B. SAXBE the flak he took for his told reporters, "It could be she 'hit on this device as the ... a small milestone Hearst statements. "If it had been some poor black girl only way she could stay who had gotten in with alive." cism, the Attorney General toughs and held up a bank, I Saxbe is also criticized for ended the forum in which couldn't imagine anyone not spending much time on most of his controversial saying. 'Oh, what an out- the job.. "There aren't many comments had been made, a rage to condemn this girl.' weeks that he's in the office weekly coffee-and-donuts "Every prosecutor has to more than three days," one session with reporters whO make a decision [on proba- staffer said. "He gives a lot regularly cover the depart- ble guilt] or no one would of speeches around the ment. get arrested," he insisted. country, and when he's out Saxbe said he "thoroughly It is this quality of mind, on speaking trips, he takes enjoyed" the sessions, but this tendency to equate him- time for golfing or hunting. "the editors of the country self with a county prosecu- When Kleindienst was here, just descended on me" and tor and not with the loftiest he'd go out for a speech and "the (Washington Star- law enforcement official in break his butt to fly, back to News) said the Attorney the country that causes no the department the' same General was making such a small concern within the day. clown of himself by those "When Saxbe is in the of- coffee sessions." Justice Department. One high official said of fice, it's mostly 9 to 5 except At each session Saxbe for Wednesday afternoons, would have a statement Saxbe, "He's a very likeable person—direct, open, can- when he meets with the as- about a certain department sistant attorneys general. program or problem, but it did. But what is he open about? He's n6t a heavy Then he stays till 6, but would be ignored, an aide that's because the meetings •said, because the press was thinker at all ... [he] has no personal conception of the break up around 5 and they more concerned with "how open up the bar." is he going to stick his foot nature of the problem of re- in his mouth this week." storing confidence in the adL Reports from those meet- Saxbe saw the meetings ministration of justice. It's ings indicate a lack of depth turning into cross-examina- really one of tone, of spirit. in Saxbe's understanding of tions but said, "I liked the Elliot Richardson, in words department problems. pull and haul, the matching- and actions, set a standard of-wits part of it." that was high." However, he stopped them As an example of the because he saw the constant quality of mind that, they controversy (neer this re- find disturbing, Saxbe's crit- marks as "harmful to the de- ics point to his knack for in- partment," he said. consistency. "Also, I had a son running At a coffee session with for office in Ohio," he ex- reporters March 13 Saxbe plained, referring to Charles began a discussion of gov-