AMERICAN NOTES: Humphrey? Go Fish

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"All right, gents, let's see some cards."

"Lookin' good. I've got Pat Nixon hawking pie, Jane of Arc Fonda on the battlements and Martha Mitchell on the phone."

"Read 'em and weep. Richard Nixon in an ermine robe, Strom Thurmond in a Confederate flag and Lyndon Johnson serving rockets at a barbecue."

Such are the hands drawn at a new game of satirical poker played with "Politicards." The idea was concocted by a Los Angeles copywriter-artist team, Lee Livingston and Peter Green, who turned a standard deck into a riffle of 54 political caricatures (including the two obvious jokers, William F. Buckley Jr. and Norman Mailer). All the black cards are Republicans, the reds Democrats. Deuce of spades is Little David Eisenhower in a sailor suit, clutching a toy boat. Tricia Nixon Cox, the four of spades, is a Playboy Bunny. Eugene McCarthy, the three of hearts, is Hamlet meditating upon a skull. A constabulary George Wallace is rated the jack of diamonds. The cards have been popular enough to go into their third edition, but they obviously need some updating. One of the present kings is Edmund Muskie.