THE WEEK

• Ting-a-ling. “Is this Senator Williams’ office? You’re the senator’s administrative assistant? Fine. Well, maybe you could help us. I’m calling for Governor Pat Brown. The governor would very much appreciate it if the senator could visit California sometime this fall and make a campaign speech for him. Perhaps the senator could schedule another hearing of the Labor and Welfare Subcommittee that looked into the farm problem here some months back. That would take care of his expenses. You’ll ask the senator? Thank you.” (Two days later). Ting-a-ling. “Is this Mr. Jones? Mr. Jones, I’m Senator Williams’ A.A. We talked a couple of days ago. The senator asked me to tell you that he’d be delighted to visit California. No. He’s not going to schedule any hearings. He’ll pay his own way. Oh yes, and he asked me to tell you that the subject of his talk will be ‘Honesty in Government.’ ” Thus did Governor Brown’s aide discover that he had been talking to the office of Republican Senator John Williams of Delaware, the great apostle of honesty in government, not Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey, the Democrat.

• There is an unmistakable and wholly unexpected buoyancy about conservative Republicanism these days. First there was Ronald Reagan’s smashing victory over George Christopher in the California gubernatorial primary. Then, in a swirl of primary battles, Idaho’s gung-ho Liberal Republican Governor Robert Smylie was trounced for renomination by conservative State Senator Donald Samuelson; Liberal Republican Congressman Robert Ellsworth tried and failed to take the Kansas senatorial nomination away from conservative incumbent James Pearson; and Congressman Durward (“Doc”) Hall of Missouri, one of Capitol Hill’s doughtiest conservatives, easily turned back a renomination challenge. Perhaps equally significant: in a little-noticed city election in Savannah, Georgia, Republicans captured the mayoralty and made a clean sweep of the City Council. On the ash-heap along with Robert Smylie, incidentally, went the plans of his Liberal YR protégé, Hope Kading, to become next year the first female chairman of the Young Republicans. Likely Liberal substitute candidate: Ohio YR chairman Jim Betts.

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• Ting-a-ling. “Is this Senator Williams’ office? You’re the senator’s administrative assistant? Fine. Well, maybe you could help us. I’m calling for Governor Pat Brown. The governor would very much appreciate it if the senator could visit California sometime this fall and make a campaign speech for him. Perhaps the senator could schedule another hearing of the Labor and Welfare Subcommittee that looked into the farm problem here some months back. That would take care of his expenses. You’ll ask the senator? Thank you.” (Two days later). Ting-a-ling. “Is this Mr. Jones? Mr. Jones, I’m Senator Williams’ A.A. We talked a couple of days ago. The senator asked me to tell you that he’d be delighted to visit California. No. He’s not going to schedule any hearings. He’ll pay his own way. Oh yes, and he asked me to tell you that the subject of his talk will be ‘Honesty in Government.’ ” Thus did Governor Brown’s aide discover that he had been talking to the office of Republican Senator John Williams of Delaware, the great apostle of honesty in government, not Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey, the Democrat.

• There is an unmistakable and wholly unexpected buoyancy about conservative Republicanism these days. First there was Ronald Reagan’s smashing victory over George Christopher in the California gubernatorial primary. Then, in a swirl of primary battles, Idaho’s gung-ho Liberal Republican Governor Robert Smylie was trounced for renomination by conservative State Senator Donald Samuelson; Liberal Republican Congressman Robert Ellsworth tried and failed to take the Kansas senatorial nomination away from conservative incumbent James Pearson; and Congressman Durward (“Doc”) Hall of Missouri, one of Capitol Hill’s doughtiest conservatives, easily turned back a renomination challenge. Perhaps equally significant: in a little-noticed city election in Savannah, Georgia, Republicans captured the mayoralty and made a clean sweep of the City Council. On the ash-heap along with Robert Smylie, incidentally, went the plans of his Liberal YR protégé, Hope Kading, to become next year the first female chairman of the Young Republicans. Likely Liberal substitute candidate: Ohio YR chairman Jim Betts.