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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1976)
THL BA I IALIUN TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1976 t'age o iberals on way out of Republican Party Avoid The Hassle! Why wait until the last minute to dbyt| JEW HAVEN—Here in Connec- iutineit),h> where Sen. Lowell P. ourstoti ^ er> } Ti came close to running rces ■Section this fall as an indepen- Tation itratherthan remaining a Repuh- an 3ll LiBhere are many other Republi- ver s ii 'iwho share his qualms about reDa irfuture in the GOP. b ers )neofthem—an official who, like '■er, has decided to stand pat for c an L Hremarked the other day on s and] ffh^ happened to the liberal counl B'cans at the Kansas City con- IraditionB 1 ' will mj We’ve lost ground steadily since VdcMinljl,” he said, “but this time they - Jem | {ignored us.” 'hat is about the size of it. The »ral Republicans—or progres- 01 moderates, as they variously elhemselves—scored their last )ry at the 1960 Republican con- [ion Nelson Rockefeller ob- elsome important platform con- ions from Richard Nixon, and iw Cabot Lodge went on the tic- for Vice President. n[l964and 1968, progressive Re- illcans William Scranton and iljefeller provided the main com- ition to the presidential mees. And in the latter year, the prm again reflected moderate Tl972, the liberal Republicans ire reduced to fighting—and :S: AlumaCraft, Grumman, ABS Tejas & Blue Hole RENTAL: Special group rates DR. MICKEY UTILE : College Station, Tx. (713) 846-7307 lo your local booking agent for loe & kayak rentals on the JADALUPE RIVER for TEXAS NOE TRAILS. $16/day includes, little. Phone CANOES, LTD. for de tails & reservations. |- - - Cjip. and'savfcy- America s #1 Fun Stop located on South Texas Avenue petween K-Mart and Gibson’s.) y. kV "GUITARS" 20% Discount Top Quality Guitars libson, Martin, Gretsch, [iVarez, Ventura, Yamaha, piphone, Dorada & Sigma. Lange Music Co. £“•822-2334 David S Broder losing—on the party rules. And this year, they were all but invisible on the floor in either nomination, plat form or rules battles. Rockefeller was being dumped from the ticket. He was handed extra humiliation when he was assigned to accept, on behalf of the Ford admin istration, the conservative platform amendment designed as a rebuke to his protege. Secretary of State Kis singer. The former New York governor is almost too convenient a symbol of the increasing impotence of the Re publican progressives. In 1968, he was a presidential candidate. By 1972 he had been reduced to nominating Richard Nixon for Presi dent. This year, his assignment was to nominate Bob Dole for Vice Pres ident. Lord only knows what he’ll be handed if he comes back four years from now. Rockefeller does symbolize one cause of the liberal Republicans’ decline—senescence. Like Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, Clifford Case of New Jersey and Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, he has grown weary of the fray and just doesn’t care that much what happens to his party. Other liberal Republicans, who do care very much, make themselves ineffectual by doing something no serious politician should ever do— giving their help for free. Sen. Charles McC. Mathias of Maryland is one of those conscienti ous progressives. He complained on television the other day that Presi dent Ford was ignoring the very people whose help was essential in making him the nominee-—the lib eral Republicans. Mathias is right, but he doesn’t carry his argument far enough. Last December he was weighing the pos sibility of becoming the third candi date for the Republican presidential nomination. But Mathias ruled him self out, on the grounds that his can didacy could only hurt Mr. Ford’s chances of beating Ronald Reagan. By that decision, he guaranteed that the only effective pressure on the President, through the moment of his nomination, would be the pressure from the right. Had Mathias run, and won a share of the delegates from Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon and other liberal Republican states, then the progressives would have had the same kind of bargaining power at the convention that Clarke Reed of Mis sissippi enjoyed by withholding votes from the conservative side. Mr. Ford would have blown out of the race right at the start, in New Hampshire, had not such liberal local Republicans as Walter Peter son, Robert Reno and Victoria Zachos, aided by such outside cam paigners as liberal Reps. Paul McCloskey and William Cohen, be latedly mobilized the moderate Re publicans of that state—who had no great enthusiasm for the President—to rescue him from de feat at Reagan’s hands. Mr. Ford would have been a sure loser again had not ex-Gov. Richard Ogilvie and Sen. Charles H. Percy organized Illinois for him. If Gov. William Milliken had not stepped in to save Michigan when the President was reeling from his defeats in Texas and Indiana, Mr. Ford would not be planning a campaign this week. All of these rescue missions were led by liberal Republicans. But they got nothing in return, not even a voice in the vice-presidential choice. because they never asked. If Mr. Ford is elected, they may have a chance to recoup. The Presi dent will continue to fill his cabinet with liberal Republicans; they rep resent the real talent pool in his party. One of them, perhaps, can be in a position to compete for the pres idency in 1980. But if Mr. Ford loses, the con servatives very likely have the votes to complete their take-over of the party organization by electing one of their own to succeed Mary Louise Smith as Republican National Chairman. Then the progressive Republicans would face real exclusion—and a tough choice whether it makes more sense to remain in the GOP or take the independent route that both Weicker and Mathias have come close to choosing. Mathias said on “Meet the Press” that, “If we lose...the Republican Party may be at a point of transition. ” And that transition could point to the exit sign for men like himself, so lit tle do they have left to lose inside the GOP. get your yearbook picture taken? 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