Nation: And the Senate Bids Farewell

Edward Brooke, 59, the only black ever popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, was regarded at first as a shoo-in when he sought a third term. But last week the Massachusetts liberal Republican lost his seat to Democratic Congressman Paul Tsongas, 37.45% to 55%.

Brooke's defeat does not fit the pattern of conservatives beating liberals. In his twelve years in the Senate, Brooke voted regularly for labor, minorities, consumer protection and a host of other orthodox liberal causes. But Tsongas is even more to the left and in fact drew large numbers of Democrats and independents who previously had backed Brooke.

What doomed Brooke was the odor hanging over his personal affairs. Not only did he go through a highly publicized divorce, but he was also accused of failing to report to the secretary of the Senate a loan that he had listed in a financial statement to his wife's lawyers during the divorce proceedings. Still pending is an investigation by Massachusetts officials of a possible $72,000 Medicaid fraud involving his late mother-in-law.

Dick Clark, 49, observed: "Liberalism is kind of hunkered down right now. It's on the defensive." That was on the eve of his bid for a second term as U.S. Senator. The following day the Iowa Democrat, one of the Senate's leading liberals, learned how right he was. He became a casualty of the conservative trend, losing to Republican Roger Jepsen, 49, a Davenport businessman, 48% to 51%.

Telling voters that "this time the choice is clear," Jepsen had hit hard at Clark's liberal record. The Democrat was denounced for being pro-union and for backing costly Government social-welfare programs, gun control and the Panama Canal treaties. He paid dearly for his liberal stand on abortion. Right-to-life groups distributed hundreds of thousands of brochures that depicted a fetus and urged votes against Clark. Said a Jepsen aide: "Inflation and taxes really were the overriding things. People are just tired of them."

Robert Griffin, 55, to his dismay, bucked the voting trend. Michigan's G.O.P. Senator was one of the nation's few conservative incumbents to be defeated by a liberal. In his bid for a third Senate term, he lost (47% to 53%) to Democrat Carl Levin, 44, the former president of Detroit's city council.

As Republican Senate whip from 1969 to 1977, Griffin divided his time between tending to housekeeping chores and fighting on the floor for partisan causes. He led a successful fight to block President Johnson's nomination of Abe Fortas as Chief Justice in 1968. Two years ago, Griffin deftly managed Gerald Ford's nomination over Ronald Reagan at the Republican National Convention.

But it was a major political blunder that undid Griffin last week. After announcing, in the spring of 1977, that he would not seek reelection, he began playing hooky from his Senate job, missing 216 roll calls that year. When he later changed his mind and entered the race, his dismal attendance record haunted him, even though he previously had a well-deserved reputation as a Washington workhorse. Exclaimed Levin repeatedly during the campaign: "If any one of us missed 216 days of work in a year, we'd be fired!" Michigan voters agreed.