Nation: The Leader: Everett Dirkson

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There is nothing very mysterious about Dirksen's methods as leader. Sitting across the aisle from him when he took over was Democrat Lyndon Johnson, one of the most talented leaders in Senate history. Dirksen watched Johnson and learned from him. But where Johnson often scraped off some hide when he was trying to smooth Senate fur, Dirksen's techniques are gentler. Says he: "The longer one is identified with public life, especially at the national level, the more one is persuaded, as an ancient philosopher said, that politics is the art of the possible." In dealing with Senators of different philosophies, Dirksen simply sets out to satisfy. "What you do," he explains, "is to see how much common ground there is on which every member of the party can stand. You note what the differences might be. When that's been done, then you try to close the gap, and this is different with every situation that arises."

E for Effort. None of this is as easy as it sounds. "Votes," says Dirksen, "don't flutter down like handbills from an airplane. They don't shake off a tree. Effort still counts around here." As for effort, Dirksen gives it all he has got—and he is one of the Senate's most prodigious workers. Before dawn each morning he is at his desk in his small Washington apartment. At 8:30 he sets out in the chauffeured Cadillac that is the prerogative of his leadership office. He also rates a telephone in the car,* but has had it removed

so as not to be interrupted in the reading that occupies him all the way to the Hill. His only respite comes on the increasingly rare occasions when he and his wife slip away to the Leesburg, Va., countryside, where they have built a small home on 3½ acres. There Dirksen indulges in his hobby of raising a variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers. It's all part of a process he calls "system repair ... It freshens you up for the combat of the next week."

All Wet. To continue in this life that he loves, Dirksen must win re-election in November. This may not be easy. For while Dirksen's Senate duties have kept him pretty much in Washington, Democrat Yates has been campaigning hard in Illinois. Last week he invaded Dirksen's own Pekin, plastering the Senator for "voting one way in Washington" and "talking another way in Illinois." Dirksen may use his flowing phrases, says Yates, "his soothing, oozy, syrupy words; but his record is coming out, and I'm going to help it come out." Candidate Yates charges that Dirksen "sabotaged" the drug bill, and "then the outcry over thalidomide changed his mind," that he voted against minimum-wage legislation, the area-redevelopment bill, the housing bill, federal aid to education, and rural electrification.