Politics: Consensus by Any Other Name

"This meeting," said Michigan's George Romney, after a 90-minute lunch with New York's Nelson Rockefeller in a poolside dining room in Puerto Rico, "is purely coincidence." It was about as coincidental as Stanley's confrontation with Livingston, or Wellington's with Napoleon. But that was beside the point.

What the two Republican Governors had on their minds was the future of the G.O.P. and, more immediately, its strategy for 1968. Romney, by virtue of his 600,000-vote third-term victory and potent coattail strength, is the early-form favorite for the 1968 G.O.P. presidential nomination. Rockefeller, a big upset winner in New York, is eager to at least play a prominent role in choosing the candidate and fashioning the platform.

The two men agreed that the G.O.P.'s first task is to erase the aura of narrow exclusivity that it acquired during Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign, and to establish itself as a broad-based party with ample room for ideological differences and leaders as far apart as a Rockefeller and California's Governor-elect Ronald Reagan. If that prescription seemed predictable, they did not agree on it without engaging in some caustic casuistry that did little to help the party or the disputants.

Never on Sunday. On the eve of Romney's arrival, Rocky, ensconced in a three-bedroom cottage alongside Brother Laurance's palm-fringed Dorado Beach Hotel, called newsmen over for a chat about the prospects of Republican unity and success. To Rockefeller, the 25 G.O.P. Governors "provide a very unique starting point" for a comeback. But Rocky thought—and said repeatedly—that they should achieve a "consensus" on objectives and attitudes before they begin worrying about a candidate. After the umpteenth reference to "consensus"—which, after all, has become virtually a Lyndon Johnson copyright—he admitted: "I hate to keep using that word, but I can't think of a better one."

Romney clearly thought that Rocky should try. When the Michigander arrived from San Juan, he was asked what he thought about the New Yorker's notion of a party consensus. His face clouded. "That is Rockefeller's word," snapped Romney. "I associate it with someone else who hasn't fared too well with consensus. I think we need leadership." With that, Romney went off to Suite 701 in the Dorado Beach Hotel, changing into plaid trunks for a swim. When he finally did phone Rockefeller, 90 minutes after arriving, he suggested that they wait until the morrow for their meeting. "I never talk politics on Sunday," he explained.