Adroit Democrats Put GOP on Defensive, Evening Star (Article, October 1954)
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Adroit Democrats Put G.O.P. on Defensive
Nixon, Dirksen Among Few Taking Offensive
LOUISVILLE, Ky., Oct. 23.--Across the country, Republican candidates for Congress have gradually been forced to take the defensive rather than the aggressive position, owing largely to the adroit handling of two factors by the Democrats--low farm prices and unemployment.
Distress in the country is spotty. Farmers, by and large, are not suffering--indeed, many of them are doing well. Unemployment is far less than in New Deal years--after the New Dealers had been in power for eight years. There were 8 million unemployed in 1941--before this country entered World War II, compared to 3 million plus today.
But with few exceptions, Republican Party leaders in the States and many of the candidates are spending their time answering Democratic attacks on the Eisenhower administration, not attacking the Democrats. Two notable exceptions are Vice President Nixon and Senator Dirksen of Illinois, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Takes Stevenson's Text.
Taking as his text Adlai Stevenson's comment that the Eisenhower administration had produced "20 dreary months," Senator Dirksen recounts the terrible, dreary situations left by the Democrats which the Republicans have been forced to clean up.
"Oh, Adlai, old boy," Dirksen comments, "how right you are. It has been a dreary business, indicting Government officials, appointed by the Democrats, for the housing scandals. It's been a dreary business cleaning the Reds, the mink-coaters, the fellow travelers, the subversives and the homosexuals out of the Government."
Then he comments that, for the first time in a generation, the world is not at war and the blood of American GIs is not being spilled on foreign soil.
"Harry Truman," he continued, "committed us to strife in Indo-China but, thanks to the Eisenhower administration, not a single GI lost his life in the leprous jungles of Indo-China."
When the Democrats left office, he says, nothing had been done to settle the dispute over Trieste between Italy and Yugoslavia, and no peace had been made in Austria and Germany. Now there is hope of strengthening Germany and peace there, with 200,000 American boys coming home. The Trieste dispute has been settled.
Nixon Follows Suit.
The Vice President talks in much the same strain, carrying the fight to the Democrats--but too many Republicans all suffer from stage fright when the Democrats talk about unemployment, farm prices and big business in Government. There has been too much demoralization on the Republican campaign front. President Eisenhower's more active campaigning may put new courage into them.
Even in strongly Republican States like Wyoming, Oregon, Ohio and Illinois, the odds for Republican senatorial candidates have narrowed or swung over to the Democratic side. Two veteran Democrats--Barkley in Kentucky and O'Mahoney in Wyoming--seem almost certain to be returned to the Senate. Mr. Barkley has been out of the Senate for six years--as a member. He served, of course, as president of that body and president officer for four years as "The Veep." Mr. O'Mahoney was defeated for re-election to the Senate two years ago.
Mr. Barkley is nearly 77 years old and Mr. O'Mahoney is close to 70. The Veep is running against a really strong Republican, Senator Cooper. But the Republicans in Wyoming, badly split, have a colorless candidate in a State where they hoped to pick up a Democratic seat.
Not High Caliber.
In too many States, Republican candidates do not measure up, nor have the personal followings which their Democratic opponents possess. In California, which not long ago seemed sure, the Democratic candidate for the Senate, Yorty, is moving up on Senator Kuchel, the Republican incumbent. Senator Humphrey is making a runaway race of the senatorial contest in Minnesota, a State which rallied strongly to President Eisenhower and which has been predominantly Republican in recent years. Bender, in Ohio, seems in serious difficulty in his race against Democratic Senator Burke.
Too much factionalism is exercising itself in Republican ranks in many of the States. The Old Guard, which never seems to learn, also seems willing to lose in these elections, hoping out of the wreckage to gain control of the G.O.P. If, indeed, the elections go against the Republicans, then indeed the drive of ultraconservatives will be on in earnest to take over from the so-called Eisenhower wing of the party.
