University of Virginia Library

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.