FROM WASHINGTON STRAIGHT

GOP PLATFORM NOTES

The chairman of the Republican Platform Committee is Mississippi Congressman Trent Lott, a bright, well-trained lawyer who, like Mr. Reagan, is a former Democrat. Lott has already presided over five drafts of the Republican platform, keeping it about midway between the New Right and the Ripon Society and investing it with both a conservative thrust and gloss. Other big fish in the twenty member platform working tank include Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, Vin Weber, Bobbi Fiedler, and Bob Walker, all of whom are members of the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS), an ad hoc group of Republican House members who contrive to get key national issues to the floor of the House for vote, score technical knockouts over Tip O’Neill (most recently on the C-Span issue), and convene at special gatherings to discuss all kinds of brainy, avant-garde ideas.

JM

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John McLaughlin

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Presidential Election

GOP PLATFORM NOTES

The chairman of the Republican Platform Committee is Mississippi Congressman Trent Lott, a bright, well-trained lawyer who, like Mr. Reagan, is a former Democrat. Lott has already presided over five drafts of the Republican platform, keeping it about midway between the New Right and the Ripon Society and investing it with both a conservative thrust and gloss. Other big fish in the twenty member platform working tank include Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich, Vin Weber, Bobbi Fiedler, and Bob Walker, all of whom are members of the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS), an ad hoc group of Republican House members who contrive to get key national issues to the floor of the House for vote, score technical knockouts over Tip O’Neill (most recently on the C-Span issue), and convene at special gatherings to discuss all kinds of brainy, avant-garde ideas.