University of Virginia Library

Robert Gillmore

The Republicans Pick
Up A Few Pieces

Less than a year after Barry
Goldwater dealt the Republican
party the worst Presidential defeat
in its history, Pennsylvania Sen.
Hugh Scott looked out over a Republican
audience gathered in New
Haven and uncustomarily raised his
voice:

"In order to win," he said,
"You've got to deserve to win!"

The injunction was clever —
vague enough not to pain the conservatives
present, yet clear to all:
unless the GOP can deliver the
goods as well as the Democrats have
since the New Deal, they will lose
(and, one might add, will deserve
to).

In last week's elections, as least
victorious Democrats were vulnerable
some deservedly to the proper
Republican challenge: New Jersey's
liberal but often ineffective Harrison
Williams, Indiana's liberal but
not uncorrupted Vance Hartke,
North Dakota's very admirable but,
but in-state, too progressive
Quentin Burdick; and four Westerners
whose main campaign claim was
only their proven ability, to suck
voraciously at the federal tit: Wyoming
hawk Gale McGee, Nevada's
Howard Cannon, New Mexico's
Joseph Montoya and Utah's Frank
Moss — generally liberal yet generally
modest men with, in Churchill's
phrase, "much to be modest
about."

Modest Men

But what did the Republicans
throw at each of these modest
men?

The by now very tired charge
that each is soft on law and order
and/or the Communists and in any
case a "radiclib" — rhetoric which
at best is silly and at worst obnoxious
and totally ineffective in
unseating popular Democrats in
states where, after all, everyone
likes to get a little now and then
from the public sector and where
the so-called "radiclibs" procure it
well.

Thus, New Jersey's Nelson
Gross, Indiana's Richard Roudebush,
North Dakota's Thomas
Kleppe, Wyoming's John Wold,
Nevada's William Raggio, New Mexico's
Carter Anderson and Utah's
Laurence Burton met well-earned
defeats.

And on the whole, the other
elections were sanguine.

Montana's Mike Mansfield, Wisconsin's
William Proxmire, Michigan's
Philip Hart, Maine's Edmund
Muskie and Hugh Scott — bright,
energetic liberals — swept easily into
office.

Henry The Hawk

Less pleasing was the free
Republicans gave to Washington
hawk Henry Jackson or the lack of
an appealing candidate against
Rhode Island's liberal but eccentric
John Pastore.

Acute disappointments were
Maryland and Tennessee where
courageous liberals Joseph Tydings
and Albert Gore lost to conservative
Congressmen of lesser stature
J. Glenn Beall Jr. and William
Brock; Texas, where moderate Republican
George Bush lost to conservative
Lloyd Bentsen; and of
course New York, where James
Buckley knocked off two much
better men: Republican Charles
Goodell, whose outspoken (if
new-found) liberalism is praise to
his party's best traditions; and Democrat
Richard Ottinger, whose
profound and eclectic interests are
praise to Robert Kennedy, Herbert
Lehman and Robert Wagner, his
Democratic predecessors.

Pleasant results however, came
in California: John Tunney does
not have the mind of his new
colleague, Alan Cranston, but the
nation is relieved of the absurdity
of having George Murphy in the
State.

And in Illinois, the very excellent
Adlai Stevenson handily retired
the conservative but otherwise
ordinary Ralph Smith, whose frequent,
sly grin suggested that perhaps
he, too, thought it was great
fun that he of all people should find
himself in the Senate.

The victories of Mississippi's
John Stennis and the Byrds (of
Virginia and West Virginia) are
noted with the usual regret.

And at the remaining results I
looked with mixed feelings:

Minnesota's ebullient and
almost-legendary Hubert Humphrey
won a smashing and much-merited
victory — but at the cost of Clark
MacGregor, an intelligent, conscionable
conservative who will be
missed by both friends and critics
in Congress.

Moderate Taft

Ohio's thoughtful and earnest
moderate, Robert Taft, had to defeat
the thorough-going liberal
Howard Metzenbaum,who would
have been a fit successor to retiring
Sen. Stephen Young.

Connecticut's bright moderate
Republican Lowell Weicker beat
the most appealing clergyman peace
candidate, Joseph Duffey.

Vermont's able moderate Winston
Prouty defeated his state's first
Democratic governor, the creative
and outspoken Philip Hoff.

And Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly
elected twice-cheat Edward
Kennedy, instead of Josiah
Spaulding, whose superlative background
and uncompromised liberalism
would have ranked him with
Hugh Scott as a leader of Republican
Senate progressives.