Bliss vs.

Focus on WASHINGTON

Just two weeks ago, GOP National Committee Chairman Ray Bliss seemed to have found the peace and quiet he had always wanted. The Goldwater loyalist had departed in silence and his own people had moved in. Then all of a sudden the place was a mob scene. First, Chairman Bliss went to Miami as official observer and guest speaker at the Young Republican National Convention. Chairman Bliss not only had the bad form to get caught lobbying for one of the candidates for YR National Chairman, but the bad sense to be backing the losing candidate. The winner, State Senator Tom Van Sickle of Kansas, now moves to 1625 Eye Street, Washington, D.C., where he will share the offices of Chairman Bliss. Second, there was the now infamous desk-rifling incident. William Cody Kelly, who was to Bliss what Ted Sorensen was to Jack Kennedy, was a bit overzealous in his quest for knowledge, and crowbarred open the desk of Finance Director Frank Kovac to examine some of the latter’s personal correspondence. Kovac objected, loudly. Bliss, was, of course, forced to ask for Kelly’s resignation. Kelly’s departure has thrown the National Committee into a turmoil, for Kelly was responsible in large measure for the administration of day-to-day operations. Third, there is the continuing problem of Barry Goldwater’s Free Society Association, and the special problems it presents to Republican fund-raisers and policy-makers. Bliss made the tactical error of denouncing the formation of the FSA while omitting mention of the numerous extra-party groups which have split off to the Left. Conservative Republicans were annoyed; it seemed to indicate a basic anti-conservatism in the supposedly non-ideological Mr. Bliss. Fourth, Bliss ran into the demands of the rambunctiously Republican South at the National Committee meeting: Dick Edens, South Caroline state chairman and architect of the recent Albert Watson landslide victory, sued for a vacant vice chairmanship, and Mississippi State Chairman Wirt Yerger sniped at Pennsylvania Chairman Craig Truax, who was running interference for the Liberal members of the Republican Governors Conference.

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Focus on WASHINGTON

Just two weeks ago, GOP National Committee Chairman Ray Bliss seemed to have found the peace and quiet he had always wanted. The Goldwater loyalist had departed in silence and his own people had moved in. Then all of a sudden the place was a mob scene. First, Chairman Bliss went to Miami as official observer and guest speaker at the Young Republican National Convention. Chairman Bliss not only had the bad form to get caught lobbying for one of the candidates for YR National Chairman, but the bad sense to be backing the losing candidate. The winner, State Senator Tom Van Sickle of Kansas, now moves to 1625 Eye Street, Washington, D.C., where he will share the offices of Chairman Bliss. Second, there was the now infamous desk-rifling incident. William Cody Kelly, who was to Bliss what Ted Sorensen was to Jack Kennedy, was a bit overzealous in his quest for knowledge, and crowbarred open the desk of Finance Director Frank Kovac to examine some of the latter’s personal correspondence. Kovac objected, loudly. Bliss, was, of course, forced to ask for Kelly’s resignation. Kelly’s departure has thrown the National Committee into a turmoil, for Kelly was responsible in large measure for the administration of day-to-day operations. Third, there is the continuing problem of Barry Goldwater’s Free Society Association, and the special problems it presents to Republican fund-raisers and policy-makers. Bliss made the tactical error of denouncing the formation of the FSA while omitting mention of the numerous extra-party groups which have split off to the Left. Conservative Republicans were annoyed; it seemed to indicate a basic anti-conservatism in the supposedly non-ideological Mr. Bliss. Fourth, Bliss ran into the demands of the rambunctiously Republican South at the National Committee meeting: Dick Edens, South Caroline state chairman and architect of the recent Albert Watson landslide victory, sued for a vacant vice chairmanship, and Mississippi State Chairman Wirt Yerger sniped at Pennsylvania Chairman Craig Truax, who was running interference for the Liberal members of the Republican Governors Conference.