National Affairs: Ike's Ebb?

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In attacking Ike on monetary policy, Bob Kerr was just being Bob Kerr. But the impunity with which he made the attack—Homer Capehart alone accused him of bad taste rather than inaccuracy—highlighted a new congressional attitude toward Dwight Eisenhower. On strictly domestic issues—the budget, civil rights, etc.—the President has lost, or has forsworn, his political leverage despite his personal popularity on and off Capitol Hill. Congress' discovery: six months through his second term, he need no longer be feared, can often be ignored, occasionally flouted without fear of political reprisal.

Cockiness for Caution. Congress' who-cares sentiment toward Ike-the-domestic-leader blossomed during the "hair-curling" Humphrey flap and the budget fight last February, as the White House delayed overlong in taking a firm stand for Administration policies (TIME, April 22). The House, including many a Republican outside the party's Old Guard, happily zeroed in on one of Eisenhower's favorite projects, the U.S. Information Agency, sliced its budget by half. The Senate crippled the Administration farm program (but rallied remarkably when Ike stood and fought for foreign aid).

Last week, when Oregon's Democratic Senator Neuberger flailed the President for "lack of enthusiasm" on the civil rights bill, Minority Leader Knowland jumped up—not to defend Ike but to reply that the U.S. Senate, not the White House, would write the bill. Last week, too, on the international front, the House missed nullifying Ike's status-of-forces agreements only by going into an unusual tie isee below) despite the President's urgent warning that the agreements were "vital."

On larger questions of war and peace, Congressmen still seem to hold Dwight Eisenhower, and his foreign-policy successes, in awe. But where they were cautious about opposing him during the first Administration, they now feel cocky in the belief that his preoccupation with international affairs and deep respect for Congress' independent role leave them free to cut Administration domestic programs as they see fit. Ike's ballooning sentences at press conferences, his occasional vaguenesses on the specifics of current Administration policy, e.g., disarmament, China trade policy, civil rights, give the President's foes new cheek, his toe-the-line supporters in the House and Senate increasingly frequent pangs of sadness. Last week the House Rules Committee cleared the Eisenhower school-construction bill for the floor and—for lack of a concerted Administration pressure—certain death.