The Congress: When Is a Majority a Majority?

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∙THE ADMINISTRATION STRATEGY. For the time being, President Johnson is keeping out of the fight, limiting himself to frequent phone calls to Mansfield or Hubert Humphrey, floor manager for the pro-rights coalition. "When he's most needed," says a Johnson aide, "he'll get into it." Humphrey, a veteran civil rights battler who sparked the 1948 Dixiecrat walkout at the Demo cratic National Convention by inspiring the insertion of a strong rights plank, will be backed up by three strongly liberal deputies: Washington's Warren Magnuson, whose Commerce Committee late last year approved a separate public accommodations bill that is slightly stronger than the version passed by the House; Pennsylvania's Joseph Clark, a longtime advocate of fair-employment practices; and Michigan's Philip Hart, ranking Democratic liberal on the Judiciary Committee. To make sure that a quorum of at least 51 pro-rights Senators is on hand at all times, Humphrey has organized six six-man Democratic teams, each captained by "quorum whips," and will supply 36 men whenever the bells begin clanging. The Republicans are responsible for a 15-man quota. Humphrey has set up a master chart of out-of-town engagements for the next two months for all Democrats, has also established a special phone-communication system with several Democratic Senators' offices.

∙THE G.O.P. STRATEGY. "The key is Dirksen," says Mansfield, "with Hick-enlooper and Aiken." Besides Dirksen, he was referring to Iowa's Bourke Hickenlooper as a Midwesterner with influence over other rural conservatives, and Vermont's George Aiken as a leader of Northeastern moderates. Among them, these three could almost certainly swing enough Republican votes to put cloture across. Dirksen is in a tough spot. Though he was his old, congenial self last week, traipsing up to the press galleries and sitting crosslegged on a table to chat with newsmen, he is under heavy fire from civil rights groups, which have threatened to mount dem onstrations in Illinois if he does not back the bill all the way. But such efforts may backfire. "If the day ever comes," says Dirksen, "when under pressure, or as a result of picketing or other devices, I shall be pushed from the rock where I must stand to render an independent judgment, my justification in public life will come to an end." Although he is expected to end up supporting the overall bill, he would like to soften its public accommodations section by making compliance voluntary for a one-or two-year trial period. He also thinks the bill's equal-employment provisions need changes. And in his present strategic position, he may very well be able to force the Democratic