National Affairs: The Rule Breaker

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The Cuss Word. Despite his success as a Democratic politician, Lausche is the despair of Ohio's professional Democrats, most of whom he loudly classifies as "bosses." In 1950, when his loyal supporter, State Auditor Joe Ferguson, ran for the U.S. Senate, Lausche made it quite plain that he thought Republican Robert A. Taft was a much better man (Taft beat Ferguson by 450,000 votes while Lausche was being re-elected Governor by 150,000). Since 1952, Lausche has been unstinting in his praise of Republican Dwight Eisenhower, only last week said in a speech that Eisenhower has brought "unity and confidence" to the American people, who "more than ever feel the grave need of his leadership."

Ohio's professional Democrats who ask Lausche to appoint their friends to state jobs are almost certain to be turned down. For this reason, his name is a special cuss word among the members of the state's Democratic delegation to the U.S. Congress—yet even they have a sort of grudging admiration for Lausche's freewheeling manners. Says one Congressman: "The easiest way to guess what Lausche will do next is to decide how you would not do it yourself." Lausche even manages to keep his wife guessing about his politics. Last summer Jane Lausche, a onetime designer, visited Washington and was asked about her husband's plans for 1956. She shook her head wistfully. "If you find out," she said, "I hope you'll tell me."

A good many other people share her curiosity. Some observers feel that Lausche might suffer as a national candidate because he is a Roman Catholic. In this connection it is perhaps significant that his main out-of-Ohio support comes from the South, which, since Al Smith in 1928, has had a reputation—perhaps undeserved —of being dead set against Catholic candidates for the Presidency. Others note that he has rarely made public appearances outside Ohio and is not well-known nationally. But last week the Cleveland Plain Dealer, writing out of long experience with Frank Lausche as a vote-getter, was only half-joking when it expressed an editorial opinion: "Lausche would be a sure winner if the Democrats nominated him because he would get more than half the Democratic votes and nearly all the Republican."