Rockefeller Compared With F. D. Roosevelt

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 15

Rockefeller Compared With F. D. Roosevelt

I Specially ivritteri for the N.Z.P.A. by FRANK OLIVER} (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Nov. 18. It is rare that the whirlpool of American politics begins its violent swirl as early in winter as midNovember but just now it is enough to cause vertigo in the most hardboiled observers. The mounting difficulties of Maria Callas in a dozen operatic capitals, the near kidnapping of King Hussein and the threat of a new Berlin blockade get headlines here and there. But the rest of the nation’s press is just politics, politics, politics. And with good reason. No-one could have forecast the kaleidoscope of fascinating possibilities and probabilities thrown up by the voters. During the campaign the President taunted the Democrats with their divisions, only to find now his own party split from top to bottom. The Democrats are equally badly split but on ground entirely remote from these quarrels. Liberal Senators of both parties are converging on Washington in high feather—as allies determined to change the rather fusty rules of that great debating club so as to eliminate that unique American institution, the filibuster. As one wit bas said the filibuster is about to meet a blockbuster and when the Collision occurs the capital will be able to see what happens when an irresistable force meets an Immovable object. In addition to all this there have been important changes in the sources of power. In the first place a man who was not a candidate but a “hold-over" from the old Senate emerges as the second most powerful man in the nation. He is Senator Lyndon Johnson, Democratic leader of an overwhelmingly Democratic Senate. For. as one columnist puts It "no act of State bas mueb chance of success, no legislative proposal can get very tar and no Democratic Presidential candidate can further his ambitions against the opposition of Senator Johnson.” And he has veto power equalled only by that of the President who can only veto an act after its passage. Senator Johnson in many

cases has the power to prevent its passage. The Man from Texas Thus the spotlight throughout, the coming legislative session will be for most of the time on the man from Texas rather than on the man in the White House. Senator Johnson’s authority is greater than that of any Senator in many years, for it will influence during the next two years not only the field of foreign affairs but the whole range of legislative and executive action. This explains why since the election the Secretary of State, Mr Dulles, has been constantly on the ’phone to Senator Johnson inviting him to speak at the United Nations and to discuss hemispheric policies with the new President of Mexico. Senator Johnson is thus de facto head ot his party. In the other political camp it is going to be difficult for Mr Nelson Rockefeller not to be de facto head of his party—an enormous jump for a man who entered the political arena only weeks ago. The man with the nose most out of joint is, of course, the VicePresident, Mr Nixon. The measure of his changed fortunes is that some of his notable enemies are now offering him friendly sympathy. apparently because they feel he has lost a staggering amount of ground almost overnight. Mr Nixon led his party to defeat as did Mr Dewey twice, but Mr Rockefeller saved the party's face with the tremendous win that gives Jlim one of the biggest elective offices in the nation. Of course he is trying hard to trample on all suggestions that he will run for the Presidency in 1960 but it is being recalled that when Mr Roosevelt was elected Governor of New York in IS2B while the party was going down in defeat for the Presidency he said the same thing when it was suggested be be the candidate in 1932. The "New York Times” recalls it wrote in 1928, “By a most extraordinary combination of qualities, political fortunes, and diversified associations the Gov-ernor-elect. Mr Roosevelt, is within reach of the element of party leadership,” and says that

Mr Rockefeller finds himself in much the same position as Mr Roosevelt 30 years ago. The man and his victory have caught the imagination of the rank and file ot his party and an increasing number of its leading figures. It is no wild prediction that he may find it bard not to be leader of his party before long, and not to be its Presidential candidate two years hence. At the moment the matter which engages most attention is the fight to change the Senate rules. Since the Senate came Into existence its rule of unlimited debate has held and this has meant that determined minorities, usually from the South, have been able to talk to death any measure or proposal they disliked. There is not even a rule that a Senator must speak on the subject being debated. He can read from the telephone book, the Bible, from newspapers, or recite, if he knows it, Spenser’s Faerie Queen, and when he falters another will carry on until the movers of the proposal being debated give up in despair. This rule has, in particular, worked against all civil rights legislation. Efforts to change this antediluvian rule have always resulted in failure because there always have been enough Northern Conservatives who did not know when they might wish to filibuster against something distasteful to them. But now there appears to be enough liberal Senators of both parties to form an alliance which can kill the filibuster rule. Their strength is indicated by the fact that already the hard core of the pro-fillbuster bloc is offering to compromise the rule but the liberals from four corners of the country, the Democrats from Illinois and Minnesota and the Republicans from New Jersey and New York are shouting “no compromise” and as they march towards Washington the cry rings out like Longfellow’s “Excelsior.”