Republicans: Toward a Broader View

"We are a defeated party with a defeated leadership," cried Idaho's Republican Governor Robert Smylie. "In that state of affairs no one should try to shackle the future with a harness that has already proved unworkable."

This was Smylie's way of demanding the ouster of Goldwater Aide Dean Burch as chairman of the Republican National Committee. In his sentiments. Smylie has plenty of Republican company. Thus Illinois' defeated gubernatorial candidate, Charles Percy, in a speech prepared for the National Association of Manufacturers' Public Relations Conference in Manhattan (Percy did not actually deliver it because N.A.M. officials protested that partisan political speeches were taboo at that session), said: "I think it is clear, first of all, that we must have a change in command at the national level." And Manhattan's Representative John Lindsay, one of the more impressive Republican winners this year, last week said scathingly: "The people who engineered the campaigns of Goldwater and Whatsisname still don't believe or understand they didn't do the best thing."

"Enough Negativism." Smylie's own statement came in a speech last week opening a Denver meeting of the Republican Governors' Association. Of the Governors and Governors-elect who attended, virtually all had opposed Goldwater's nomination, and virtually all would like to see Dean Burch resign. As the Governors convened, there were reports that they would adopt a formal oust-Burch resolution.

Many Governors feared that such a resolution would only serve to dramatize the divisions within the G.O.P. "There's already enough negativism in the party," said Oregon's Mark Hatfield. "I don't think it's a problem of ours," said Massachusetts' Governor-elect John Volpe. Washington's promising young Governor-elect Daniel Evans warned against Republicans who "insist on tagging labels such as 'liberal,' 'moderate,' 'conservative,' and 'kook' on each party member," and who want to "purge those within the party who disagree."

Kentucky's Senator Thruston Morton, a former National Committee chairman and now Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, was on hand to give the Governors an analysis of the election. He came out flatly against any move to oust Burch. "In my opinion," said he, "this is no time for bloodletting. Our blood is too thin, and there is too little of it. I am not a member of the Republican National Committee, but many of my best friends are, and I will use what influence I have to keep Dean Burch in as national chairman."