POLITICAL NOTES: Two-Front War

Despite his preoccupation with the civil rights debate in the Senate, Republican Minority Leader Bill Knowland took a moment off last week to announce that he is booked after session's end for 45 speeches in his home state of California. Will this be just a typical Senator's typical off-duty sojourn into the arms of his constituents? Clearly, no; this was Bill Knowland's quiet way of erasing virtually all doubt that he will be shooting for Governor Goodwin J. Knight's job in 1958.

In California, "Goodie" Knight and his liberal Republican administration now know that they will have a two-front fight on their hands. Vice President Dick Nixon's dislike for Knight is equaled only by Knight's for Nixon. Knight fought Nixon's vice-presidential nomination in 1956 right down to the wire, and now Nixon's strong local forces are ready to pay off Knight and help boost Knowland to victory. And should Knight defeat Knowland in a primary, the Nixonites might try to defeat Knight in the general election by sitting on their hands.

The Nixon forces are taking a calculated risk in going all-out for Knowland, since his victory as governor could establish him as a powerful Nixon rival for the G.O.P. presidential nomination in 1960—with a firm grip on the delegation from Nixon's home state. Yet the Nixonites, in their current mood, are willing to run the risk. They hope that Knowland may be persuaded to renounce his presidential ambitions for 1960, point to recent signs of cordiality between Nixon and Knowland and to the declared intention of Publisher Norman Chandler of the Los Angeles Times to support Nixon over Knowland in 1960 (TIME, July 15).

This leaves Goodie Knight with a dilemma: Should he attack Bill Knowland for trying to use California's governorship as a mere steppingstone to presidential ambitions—and thus, perhaps, pressure Knowland to bow out of 1960? Or should he keep his peace, run hard for the nomination, and hope that a flare-up of presidential rivalry will yet ruin the Nixon-Knowland armistice?