For the Record

The way things are going it was practically an accolade— Secretary-Treasurer Lane Kirkland’s statement that the AFL-CIO is not yet ready to “excommunicate” the President. At its Executive Council meeting in Chicago, the AFL-CIO decided to keep hands off until after the Democratic and Republican Conventions next year; only then will it endorse a candidate. . . Politics Today thinks Walter Mondale may be dropped in favor of a Northeastern Catholic next year (Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Gov. Hugh Carey?). On the other hand Morton Blackwell, former editor of the New Right Report (now on Sen. Gordon Humphrey’s staff),thinks Carter may be dropped in favor of Mondale (“the dreamboat of the ADA and the AFL-CIO”). … To a question about a possible Carter-Kennedy ticket in 1980, White House press secretary Jody Powell replied: “The possibility is absurd.” . . . Former Under Secretary of State George Ball was upset about the firing of Michael Blumenthal, but finds the explanation for it simple. “The President is hunkering down and the people he is hunkering down with are financial and economic illiterates.” . . . Blumenthal, incidentally, is not at all sure that he’ll vote for Carter next year. “I will make up my mind [on that] next spring.”

Primary maneuverings: White House elated by prospects that Georgia and possibly two other Southern states (South Carolina and Tennessee) will reschedule their primaries to March 11, when primaries already are scheduled for Alabama and Florida. A strong Carter showing in five Southern states one week after the Massachusetts primary could do a lot to turn Mr. Carter’s fortunes around. . . . Massachusetts, incidentally, has refused an order from the Democratic National Committee to reschedule its primary in April or later (from the present March 4 date) despite the threat that delegates chosen on March 4 will not be seated at the Convention. . . . Evan Dobelle, chairman, sort of, of the Carter campaign committee, denies Boston Herald American story that Carter will duck the Massachusetts primary. He points out that the President has the endorsement of Gov. Edward King and former Gov. Michael Dukakis. . . . Tim Kraft has left the White House to join the Carter campaign staff and Hamilton Jordan says Kraft will be running the campaign, Dobelle will “concentrate on money raising.”

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The way things are going it was practically an accolade— Secretary-Treasurer Lane Kirkland’s statement that the AFL-CIO is not yet ready to “excommunicate” the President. At its Executive Council meeting in Chicago, the AFL-CIO decided to keep hands off until after the Democratic and Republican Conventions next year; only then will it endorse a candidate. . . Politics Today thinks Walter Mondale may be dropped in favor of a Northeastern Catholic next year (Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Gov. Hugh Carey?). On the other hand Morton Blackwell, former editor of the New Right Report (now on Sen. Gordon Humphrey’s staff),thinks Carter may be dropped in favor of Mondale (“the dreamboat of the ADA and the AFL-CIO”). … To a question about a possible Carter-Kennedy ticket in 1980, White House press secretary Jody Powell replied: “The possibility is absurd.” . . . Former Under Secretary of State George Ball was upset about the firing of Michael Blumenthal, but finds the explanation for it simple. “The President is hunkering down and the people he is hunkering down with are financial and economic illiterates.” . . . Blumenthal, incidentally, is not at all sure that he’ll vote for Carter next year. “I will make up my mind [on that] next spring.”

Primary maneuverings: White House elated by prospects that Georgia and possibly two other Southern states (South Carolina and Tennessee) will reschedule their primaries to March 11, when primaries already are scheduled for Alabama and Florida. A strong Carter showing in five Southern states one week after the Massachusetts primary could do a lot to turn Mr. Carter’s fortunes around. . . . Massachusetts, incidentally, has refused an order from the Democratic National Committee to reschedule its primary in April or later (from the present March 4 date) despite the threat that delegates chosen on March 4 will not be seated at the Convention. . . . Evan Dobelle, chairman, sort of, of the Carter campaign committee, denies Boston Herald American story that Carter will duck the Massachusetts primary. He points out that the President has the endorsement of Gov. Edward King and former Gov. Michael Dukakis. . . . Tim Kraft has left the White House to join the Carter campaign staff and Hamilton Jordan says Kraft will be running the campaign, Dobelle will “concentrate on money raising.”