I am very disappointed in Geraldine Ferraro for her myopia on the baseless absurdity of her remarks.
Instead of running around insulting people , whether intending to or not , Ms Ferraro could be more valuable in the public sphere were she to use her position and influence with the Clintons and advise them that they need to reveal their tax returns – now .
Ms Ferraro, a former member of the Clintons Finance Committee, knows firsthand, how problems with tax returns can torpedo a campaign. Information found in her tax records were a major negative in her 1984 Whitehouse Campaign, as some of us remember well
Ms Ferraro should advise Hillary Clinton to document her political financial integrity to get this issue off the table, so the GOP won’t do to her what they did to Ferraro in 1984.
Greg Fuller
G.O.P. SEIZES ‘GENDERLESS ISSUE’ OF TAX RETURNS TO ATTACK FERRARO
By HOWELL RAINES, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: August 14, 1984
Republican leaders opened a concerted attack on Representative Geraldine A. Ferraro today after the announcement Sunday by the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate that her husband would not release his income tax returns.
The attacks, led by Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and a spokesman for Vice President Bush, reflected the private judgment of President Reagan’s re- election strategists that her announcement offered a chance to dim Mrs. Ferraro’s luster as the new star of the campaign year. The announcement ran counter to her earlier promise of full financial disclosure by her and her husband, John A. Zaccaro,
Republican strategists said that for the first time the Republicans had a ”genderless issue” that they could use to discredit Mrs. Ferraro without risking a backlash of sympathy for her.
Dole Cites ‘Public Interest’
”The public interest and the public’s right to know have not changed,” said Mr. Dole at a news conference in Dallas. ”Have Mrs. Ferraro’s views on disclosure changed?” Senator Dole, who acknowledged that his own returns were not part of the disclosure statement he files annually, held the news conference with the blessing of the Reagan re-election committee and the Republican National Committee.
Meanwhile, Mr. Mondale, the Democratic Presidential nominee, noted that Mr. Zaccaro had the right to make his own business decisions. At a news conference in North Oak, Minn., Mr. Mondale said: ”That’s his decision and he’s made that decision. As the Presidential nominee, I will take the responsibility for my running mate. She is fully complying with the law.” He, added, ”Many, many businesses are very reluctant unless they’re in public life to disclose such matters.”
Officials of his campaign tried to play down the significance of Mrs. Ferraro’s reversal of position.
On July 24 Mrs. Ferraro had said she would ”disclose my tax returns and my husband’s tax returns for the past several years,” even though that disclosure is not required under Federal election laws.
On Sunday Mrs. Ferraro said her husband had refused to release his tax returns on the ground that it would create a disadvantage for his real estate company in New York City.
Mr. Mondale’s guarded tones today seemed to support private statements from some of his associates, who said that the former Vice President and key aides wanted the couple to make a full, voluntary disclosure of their financial records.
But the campaign sources said that Mondale officials were so far putting no pressure on Mrs. Ferraro and Mr. Zaccaro in the hope that a decision to release the tax returns would be worked out between them.
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates and their spouses to disclose their sources of income and their financial liabilities. Only under a narrow set of circumstances can the spouse of a candidate be exempted. The law does not require that income tax forms be released.
However, since 1976 the candidates on both the Republican and Democratic tickets have voluntarily released their income tax returns. Today there was a chorus of demands from Republicans, some Democrats and the citizens’ organization Common Cause that the Zaccaros continue this tradition.
Fred Wertheimer, president of Common Cause, noted that Mrs. Ferraro already has a case pending before the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives. He said she was one of 16 members who claimed an exemption from disclosing her spouse’s income under the Ethics in Government Act on the ground that she was totally separated from his financial activities.
Mrs. Ferraro is listed as an officer and stockholder of the company, P. Zaccaro Company Inc., and that is the basis of the Ethics Committee inquiry. ‘Embarrassment,’ Koch Says
Citing the ”common practice since 1976” for Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates to release their tax returns, Mr. Wertheimer said, ”In light of this practice and in light of Representative Ferraro’s initial statement that both her tax returns and those of her spouse would be made public, we believe it would be in the best interest of all concerned that this be done.”
Mayor Koch said today that Mrs. Ferraro’s position was an ”embarrassment” for which she was blameless.
”I really feel sorry for Geraldine Ferraro,” said the Mayor, a Democrat. ”She cannot make her husband disclose. I believe he should.”
”I believe ultimately he will,” he went on, because ”public opinion will make him.” ‘A Very Selfish Man’
Peter Teeley, press secretary for Vice President Bush, criticized Mr. Zaccaro as ”a very selfish man.”
”He must have something to hide,” said Mr. Teeley. ”The other thing is when you’ve got the first woman on a national ticket who’s got an opportunity to be the first female Vice President of the United States, if you’re a millionaire and you’re in business, that becomes so much less important than doing everything you can to help elect your wife to the Vice President’s office and that would include releasing your income tax.”
Mr. Teeley said that Mr. Bush released his income tax forms for 1977 through 1980, and that in 1981 Mr. and Mrs. Bush’s holdings went into the ”most stringent” blind trust that could be arranged.
Under that trust they do not see the income tax returns, he said, because for them to do so would ”defeat the purpose of a blind trust,” which is to prevent conflict of interest by prohibiting the officeholder from knowing where his money is invested. Republicans Assess Position
Mrs. Ferraro’s statement was a dominant concern among Republican officeholders and strategists who were in Dallas today for hearings on the party platform. The consensus was that the tax-return issue and the broader question of Mr. Zaccaro’s business dealings might settle the Republicans’ problem of finding a way to run against the first female Vice-Presidential candidate of a major party.
One strategist said that her breaking of the ”iron law” of modern politics, full disclosure, gave the Reagan-Bush team a chance to move the campaign debate away from the tax-increase issue that has dogged the incumbents for two weeks. ‘Full Disclosure on Monday’
It’s the new story,” said a second strategist. ”We’ll just see how far it goes,” he said, adding that Reagan campaign officials were delighted when Mrs. Ferraro cited her husband’s Italian heritage as a reason for his refusal to disclose his tax return.
”To try to laugh it off by saying her husband is Italian and you know how Italian men are is just not going to see,” said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ”It implies that Italian men are unreasonable, stubborn and refuse to play by ethical rules.”
Mrs. Ferraro’s aides said she would release the legally required disclosure forms and her own tax returns on Aug. 20.
Mr. Zaccaro, appearing on ”The CBS Morning News,” said he would disclose ”whatever has to be done, according to the law.”
”It’s all premature,” he said in reference to the controversy, adding, ”We’ll have a full disclosure on Monday.”
The term ”full disclosure” led to speculation that he might include the tax returns along with the legally required statement of sources of income. But Ferraro aides said this was not the case.
Some Mondale advisers were surprised by Mrs. Ferraro’s statement on Sunday. But the former Vice President said today that Michael Berman, a ranking campaign official, had been told in advance that the announcement would be forthcoming.
