The Congress: An Adequate Number of Democrats

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Arranged for L.B.J. The numbers are with him. In the Senate, Democrats outnumber Republicans 68 to 32, and while Southern Democrats will continue to oppose many liberal measures, enough Northern Republicans are likely to line up with Lyndon to keep the Senate reasonably safe for his program. But the Senate has been fairly dependably Democratic for several sessions. Such has not been the case in the House —and it is in that volatile, unpredictable chamber that Johnson's Great Society bills will live or die. A muscular conservative coalition of Southern Democrats and rural Republicans had worked together to spoil or drastically slow down some favored bills of both John Kennedy's and Lyndon Johnson's Administrations. But now the Democrats have a 295-to-140 majority. Furthermore, they carried out a quick little revolution by making some significant changes in the rules and composition of key House committees—all carefully arranged to be pro-Johnson.

The true potential of the House can never be measured by the numbers alone. It springs from the state of 435 divergent minds, working within a welter of parliamentary mechanism and traditions. The task of making the Democratic majority consistently effective in this setting rests heavily on the Democratic leaders of the House—and none will feel the pressures more than Carl Bert Albert, 56, whose unassuming, somewhat puckish appearance masks not only a Rhodes Scholar but one of the sharpest political professionals in Congress.

He is second to Speaker John McCormack in the House party hierarchy, but Albert's delicate handling of the membership from the floor—developed to a profound proficiency after seven years as party whip and three as floor leader—will dictate to a large extent the pattern and timing of Lyndon's proposals. Says Albert: "I think we have a real opportunity to pull the party together."

Southern Discomfort. But first there had to be a little pulling apart. The leadership faced the thorny problem of disciplining two Dixie Democrats—Mississippi's John Bell Williams and South Carolina's Albert Watson—for defecting to Barry Goldwater during the campaign. Some hot-tempered Democrats, including Speaker McCormack, wanted them drummed out of the party. But Carl Albert and other cooler heads insisted on a less corrosive punishment, and the Democratic caucus merely stripped both renegades of their seniority on committees.