Nation: Three Up

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When he showed up for the G.O.P. policy conference in Washington last week, Michigan's Republican Governor George Romney looked unusually relaxed for a man who had just succeeded in antagonizing three of the pressure groups that politicians court most assiduously—veterans, parents and old folks. It was quite a feat all the same, since it involved a considerable victory over Michigan's Democrat-dominated legislature.

The Democratic leadership had been confident that it had the votes to override Romney vetoes on three key bills: 1) a measure extending $4,000,000 in homestead tax exemptions to disabled Michigan war veterans and their widows; 2) a $1,200,000 appropriation for eight money-starved state colleges; and 3) a $6,000,000 rent-subsidy program for the elderly. Romney insisted that tax relief for veterans should be based on individual need and disability, objected to the school appropriation on the grounds that it should await completion of an exhaustive study of Michigan's overloaded college system, and reasoned that rent assistance would be impossible to administer.

Even though the Michigan legislature has not succeeded in overturning a gubernatorial veto since 1951, the Democratic majorities in both the house (73-37) and senate (23-15) are so lopsided that the Democrats needed only one Republican defector in each body to give them the necessary two-thirds majority. On the veterans bill in particular, the Democrats saw clear sailing, since 28 G.O.P. house members had voted for the original measure. But they reckoned without Romney's powers of persuasion. At the one-day special session, despite three hours of floor wrangling and a gallery packed with shouting supporters of the bill, house Democrats failed to win even one Republican. Senate Democrats fared no better, failed to roll back Romney's veto on the school and rent bills.

All of which should go a long way to prove that Romney, who has been accused of not being 100% Republican, at least has Republicans in his own state 100% behind him.