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Show ie hind the Jdeadfined J- .u mn -i l.J i ii -. in m.it.niiL. i H ... in ,i No matter how many more A bombs may be exploded in the resumed East-West nuclear tests nothing occurring recently in politics can compare with the detonation set off within the Republican party by Maine lady Senator Margaret Chase Smith. Unlike the Rockefeller divorce issue which exploded over the American political landscape, Mrs. Smith's political A blast has been more like an underground nuclear detonation, producing minimum fallout. The chair reaction effect has been to help shock the otherwise lethargic Republican leadership into action. Heretofore the GOP has limited itself largely to its sniping at the Kennedy administration. admin-istration. It will now try to produce pro-duce a few blockbusters in the megaton range. What Senator Smith did was to say out loud and publicly what many Republicans have been thinking and saying privately pri-vately since their razor's edge election defeat in 1960. More than a few Republicans have been making it obvious that they have no wish to tangle with the admitted Kennedy popularity. pop-ularity. GOP National Chairman Miller has to. So do the Senate leader Dirksen and House GOP chieftain Halleck, and so have most other high and low Republicans Repub-licans on occasion. What distresses distress-es the GOP, however, is the realization real-ization that every attack on the President has produced sympathetic sympa-thetic support for JFK, and although al-though Republicans have not admitted ad-mitted as much, they know that attacks on the President, family, administration or policies have failed to stir up very much voter v support for the GOP. Senator Smith declared that it is time for the GOP to stop acting act-ing scared and to begin politicking politick-ing boldly and constructively. She heaped particular scorn on former Vice President Nixon, New York Gov. Rockefeller and Senator Goldwater for "writing off" GOP chances in 1964. More and more, she said, it appears that Republicans, wary of trying to wrest the Presidency from the popular Kennedy in 1964, are trying to boom Michigan Michi-gan Automaker George Romney as a "sacrificial lamb," so that the GOP can make a good showing show-ing in what many Republicans really regard as a hopeless race. The denials were so immediate immedi-ate that the shoe seemed to fit. Nixon, Rockefeller, Goldwater, and others quickly denied that "if" they had any White House aspirations, they would be dissuaded dis-suaded from seeking the Presidency Presi-dency by any reluctance to contest con-test Kennedy's popularity. Romney Rom-ney stressed from Michigan that he is "only interested in winning the Governorship" of the Democratic Demo-cratic Labor controlled state and when pressed to say whether she would be willing to make the race as the GOP's 1964 standard bearer, even Senator Smith herself her-self shied away, and in effect said "No." Despite the young Democratic President's high popularity, Republicans Re-publicans hold a few aces of their own. The GOP came closer to winning, in losing in 1960, than any defeated party in recent history. his-tory. The GOP is tightening up its doorbell ringing local organizations, organ-izations, putting its Big City organizations or-ganizations on a full time basis, making a strong new pitch for minority voters, riding a crest of conservatism, making deep inroads in-roads among young voters and is now devising ways to take advantage ad-vantage of the fact that President Kennedy's legislative programs ' i do not have anything remotely approaching JFK's own personal popularity. The GOP is girding for a colossal colos-sal effort to wrest control of all the key, big electoral vote states away from faction ridden Democratic Demo-cratic machines. The Republican prospects would be dismal if, after the dust settles this November, Novem-ber, Nixon, Rockefeller and Romney all lose in their gubernatorial guber-natorial quests. Republicans will be crestfallen if their strong bids for comebacks in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and possibly even Texas should flop. Yet the GOP is making admittedly admit-tedly strong bids for control of each of these states and appears more likely to win more than they lose. However despite the newfound emphasis on grass roots political organizatoin, Republicans suffer most from an apparent lack of direction. The White House gave the GOP a sense of direction in the Eisenhower era. The GOP must come to realize that it can not simply quash the political popularity of the New Frontier's domestic spending proposals by labelling them fiscally unsound and allying with Southern conservatives con-servatives in Congress to kill them. Republicans must offer constructive alternatives and make fiscal responsibility popular popu-lar again. Whatever the GOP's reasons for killing the President's proposed pro-posed new Urban Affairs Post, headed by Negro Dr. Weaver, they failed to use finesse. They even alienated countless Negroes and city voters at the same moment mo-ment they are trying to woo the big cities and minorities away from the Democratic fold. Sentaor Smith caused her own fellow Republicans to begin long over-due soul searching. The GOP, spurred largely by the lady lawmaker's blasts, is forming "Idea Task Forces" to develop a hard hitting constructive national nation-al program to offer the voters in November's congressional elections, elec-tions, which largely hold the key to GOP hopes in '64. It won't be easy. Most observers observ-ers believe the GOP will actually be hard put to make the traditional tradi-tional off year congressional gains and more than a few pundits pun-dits believe the Democrats may be able to polish off all the GOP hopefuls in the key states of New York, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, all in one fell swoop. There is nothing ahead to suggest sug-gest that the Kennedy popularity will take an early nose dive. It is impossible to predict political impact of another Cuban invasion inva-sion fisaco or another Korean Style war in Laos or South Vietnam, Viet-nam, although voters usually unite behind, not against the President, during foreign policy crises. Astronaut Glenn's orbiting popularity is not hurting the Kennedy Space program. The Moscow-Peiping split is giving the U. S. new confidence in the Cold War. The Congo appears to be stabilizing. The economic impact of the continued Berlin crisis military buildup, civilian defense shelter construction, space missile contracts, con-tracts, should keep the economy rolling and employment high. Republicans will be hard put to develop a hard hitting politically politi-cally popular and constructive program rivalling Kennedy's and suiting the times. But at least they are determined now to face up to their task. |