Politics: Passion, Pageantry & Platform

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It was a big political week—like in a big political year. Pageantry ran high, and so did passion. Big names were on the line; big decisions were made, at the polls and in convention halls.

In California, Richard Nixon, the man who lost the presidency by the barest of margins, ran with the same intensity for the right to run for the lesser office of Governor. In Massachusetts, the Kennedy family, unafraid of the slings and arrows from lesser breeds, proudly ran its youngest son through a convention gauntlet, and saw him emerge the victor. The loser was kin to the Speaker of the House, but no matter—the Kennedys know how to win and patch up. In Connecticut, always considered a bellwether state, no fewer than six Republicans spent lavishly of their blood, sweat and cash, and fought through eight ballots at a party convention for the chance to be the man who might beat a Democratic Governor in November.

But there is more to politics than men and elections and victories. There are principles, and stands, and statements of belief. In a pragmatic America, these principles and beliefs are usually stated—in fact, acted out—in the day-to-day clash of men in Congress, where votes are cast, as well as speeches made. But every once in a while there is a need for a summing up, or a restatement of belief. Not immutable principles or irrevocable doctrines, but some facts and opinions to fuel the arguments and feed the discussions in the immediate future.

Such a time had come for the Republican Party, whose Congressional members felt that there was altogether too much attention, publicity, image-building and all that jazz emanating from the skilled practitioner in the White House. What the Republicans did, naturally, was to set up a committee. It consisted of six Senators and six Representatives, and was led by Wisconsin's energetic Congressman Melvin R. Laird, 39.

A skilled veteran of four Republican Convention platform fights, Laird drove the committee hard in twice-weekly meetings. He solicited the views of top Republicans in and out of Congress, showed a 4,000-word draft to Dwight Eisenhower, accepted some of Ike's ideas verbatim, followed the ex-President's advice to cut the document to 2,500 words.

Laird's statement had the conventional weaknesses of party platforms in America.