Return of a Texas Twister

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Connally is actually a smoother, boardroom version of Lyndon Johnson, more deliberative in style and, of course, lacking the patronage and power that L.B.J. commanded as President. His first mission for Nixon was to try to repair the damage done to Lockheed Aircraft's Tri-Star project when Rolls-Royce, the contractor for the plane's jet engine, announced bankruptcy. Connally discreetly bullied the British into propping up Rolls with funds, then turned to Lockheed. On Connally's advice, Lockheed's chairman of the board, Dan Haughton, traveled the nation organizing financial support from banks and further orders from customers. "Tree all your possums at once, Dan," Connally counseled.

Needle's Eye. For all of Connally's efforts, however, the project cannot continue unless Congress agrees to underwrite $250 million in financing for Lockheed. That lobbying job may tax the Secretary's persuasive powers—as he knows, having argued unsuccessfully for the SST. This week Connally is expected to recommend to the Government a guaranteed loan to Lockheed.

It is as broker in the Democratic Congress that Nixon counts on Connally. When it gets down to the bargaining stages, Connally will be trying to coax the President's revenue-sharing program past the opposition of Wilbur Mills, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a task that may prove to be the equivalent of ramming a copy of the federal budget through the eye of a needle. Connally has also taken over as a chief salesman of Nixon's Government-reorganization program.

Connally's entrance into Nixonian Washington three months ago left both Republicans and Democrats startled and bemused by his aggressive talents. Said an old Texas friend: "He's not going to run the Treasury, he's going to run the Government." Since then, he has learned that the waters do not always part at his bidding. For example, Connally has been forced into a two month war of attrition with the White House staff to find an acceptable new Internal Revenue Service chief.

But even such intramural controversies leave Connally, a tough and single-minded man, with blood in his eye and, as far as anyone knows, an undiminished if unspoken ambition. After a Democratic Party dinner for Connally last March, a former Cabinet member whispered to an old colleague from the L.B.J. White House: "Can this country stand another Lyndon Johnson?"