Republicans Not Using Their Power

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 17

Republicans Not Using Their Power

(K Z. Press Assn.—Copynght) WASHINGTON, June 13.

The trend of Republican Presidential politics is now fairly clear, according to James Reston, of the “New York Times.”

Reston wrote: It has narrowed down to Governor George Romney, of Michigan, or former VicePresident Richard M. Nixon against Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Nobody quite knows why it has come down to this, and the party Is not very happy with the choice, but this is the way things are going. The logic of politics is hard to fathom. The strongest Republican candidate against President Johnson would be one who is experienced in foreign affairs, but the only two Republican Governors who have any claim to special knowledge in this field— Rockefeller, of New York, and

Scranton, of Pennsylvania—have just taken themselves out of the race.

This leaves the choice between Nixon, who has some experience in foreign affairs, and Romney, who has not, and the chances are that the Republicans will take Romney, who is not well-known, rather than Nixon who is too wellknown.

The lesson of recent history for the Republicans seems simple enough. In the 36 years between 1932 and 1968 they have won only with Eisenhower, a national hero and political amateur —an outsider who expanded all the welfare state and internationalist policies his party had fought against in the previous generation.

All the Republican political insiders, from Dewey on the Left to Goldwater on the far Right, were defeated, and the farther Right they went the more spectacular their defeats

I If the purpose of a political party is to control and direct the struggle for presidential powers, the logic of this is that the G.O.P. should be lookijng for one of two things:

Either an attractive new “outsider” who might have a chance of beating Johnson in 1968, or a young man with determination to deal with the growing problems and masses of the cities, who can be prepared for the future political battles of the 19705. At the present time the Republicans are doing neither. They are not looking for new personalities in their ranks who might provide a hopeful alternative to President Johnson in 1968, and they are not looking for young men who could provide an effective opposition and still be young enough to run for the presidency in 1972. The Republicans are not without leaders. They have no national hero like Eisenhower. They talk vaguely about General Lauris Norstad, Eisenhower’s successor in the N.A.T.O. command, an attractive and highly intelligent officer, and about General Westmoreland, the American commander in Vietnam. But Norstad has not been well, and Westmoreland, unlike Ike. is not yet the hero of a victorious army.

Nevertheless, the Repuhli-

cans still have some able “outsiders" and this is just the problem: they are “outside.” They are either not interested, or not considered, or working for Johnson, and this complicates the Republican political future. The two most powerful and impressive members of the

• Johnson Cabinet today are • both Republicans: Robert S. ’ McNamara, the Secretary of , Defence, and John W. Gard- ; ner, the Secretary of Health, • Education and Welfare. The irony of it is that the Republicans have the men to make a race of it, but do not : mobilise their strength.