Cronies and Honors

When he was running for President back in 1983, Walter F. Mondale was asked how a Chief Executive can project his sense of ideals and excellence to the public. “One way is by who you honor in the White House,” he said.

The major means for doing this is the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that a President can bestow on civilians. It may be awarded to those who have made especially meritorious contributions to national security, world peace or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Since 1963 the medal has gone to such distinguished persons as Ralph Bunche, Pablo Casals, E. B. White, Helen Keller, Reinhold Niebuhr, Carl Sandburg, Dean Rusk, Neil Armstrong, Jesse Owens, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Margaret Mead.

No President’s record of appointments is devoid of some personal favoritism. Presidents have named some of their own Cabinet members and even, once, a White House clerk. Generally the distinguished record has been continued by President Reagan, but with a notable exception or two, and with heavy emphasis on the entertainment industry. Reagan, for instance, was criticized for his selection a few years back of Frank Sinatra, a close Reagan family friend whose past has been linked to some decidedly unsavory characters.

And this week Reagan awarded the Medal of Freedom to the late California industrialist Justin Dart for “his contributions in the fields of business and public service.” Dart’s most widely known public service consisted primarily of seeing that his friend Ronald Reagan got elected governor of California and President. Dart was a blunt-talking advocate of trickle-down economics who relished his role as a Republican kingmaker and who once described former President Gerald R. Ford to an interviewer as “a dumb bastard.”

The credibility of the Medal of Freedom would have been enhanced by permitting Dart’s record of service to speak for itself.