Cannibalism in California

"We Democrats in California are much worse than Democrats in the rest of the country," said amiable ex-Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball last week, in the presence of visiting Democratic National Chairman Paul Butler. During his California tour, Butler got the point—right between his ribs. Seldom has a top party official been so publicly impaled before such a delighted audience as Butler before his fellow Democrats in California.

As usual, the California Democrats are engaged in a bitter family squabble.

Chairman Butler flew into the fight like a bird into a badminton game. At the Fresno convention of the California Democratic Council, a group of 400 amateur clubs whose members are at odds with the party's state leaders, Butler urged all Democrats to "work with the regular organization." Up popped handsome Richard Graves,, defeated Democratic candidate for governor last year, who proceeded to insult Butler to his face while 1,000 delegates cheered. The party leadership, he snapped, "must earn its right to lead." Graves thereupon analyzed Democratic troubles. "We have stood in the long shadow of Roosevelt and Truman," he cried, and apparently "can only win when people are hungry. We must be able to win in time of prosperity. We must be a party of principle and program—and that we have not been. We cannot do it by this form of political cannibalism in which we spend our time chewing each other up." Having chewed, amidst uproarious applause, he stalked over to Butler and spat: "You stuck your nose in something that was none of your business." Chairman Butler flushed with anger. "I didn't realize I had said anything that would offend anyone," he snapped later.

On the rest of Chairman Butler's California tour, some of his speeches surprised Democrats and even seemed to surprise Butler himself. In Sacramento, reading his prepared text, he expounded: "Let us look at a couple of myths about the way this Administration has achieved prosperity . . ." His voice trailed off. After a pause, he blurted: "You know, I find so many interesting things in these speeches, I have to stop and think about them once in a while." At other times he interjected, "It says here," or simply shrugged off the blame: "I didn't write it."

By the time he delivered his last speech in Los Angeles, Democrat Butler had been reduced to rhetoric that no one could refute, or even understand: "The most significant aspect of the whole picture is, I believe, that virtually all of the issues have deep roots, and are all the more consequential for that reason." So saying, he boarded his plane and flew out of range.