For the Record

■ Get the impression that Jimmy Carter’s popularity is spectacularly high? Wrong.

Kevin Phillips points out that Carter’s 61 to 66 per cent “favorable rating” (depending on whose poll you read) is lower than the rating of the last four Democratic Presidents after four months in office. . . . But House Speaker Tip O’Neill isn’t buying that. He thinks Carter’s support is so strong that “whatever he vetoes we will have one son-of-a-gun time to override.” . . . Rep. Robert Giaimo, chairman of the House Budget Committee, disagrees in part. He thinks the House can, and will, override a possible presidential veto of bloated HEW budget, but that Carter will be able to make stick threatened vetoes of farm subsidy and water project bills. . . . One win for the White House: The repeal of the Hatch Act sailed through the House last week, despite heel-dragging from Republicans, but it may wait a while before getting through Sen. Abraham Ribicoff’s Government Operations Committee. Ribicoff voted against a similar bill last year. . . . Another Carter favorite, the consumer agency bill, is, according to sponsor Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D., N.Y.), “still 20 to 25 votes shy of House passage.” . . . Sensitive Washington antennae note an escalated carping at the White House. The Washington Post’s “Gossip” column last week made the obvious crack: “Isn’t it nice how Andy Young is growing up to be the Martha Mitchell of the Carter Administration.”

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■ Get the impression that Jimmy Carter’s popularity is spectacularly high? Wrong.

Kevin Phillips points out that Carter’s 61 to 66 per cent “favorable rating” (depending on whose poll you read) is lower than the rating of the last four Democratic Presidents after four months in office. . . . But House Speaker Tip O’Neill isn’t buying that. He thinks Carter’s support is so strong that “whatever he vetoes we will have one son-of-a-gun time to override.” . . . Rep. Robert Giaimo, chairman of the House Budget Committee, disagrees in part. He thinks the House can, and will, override a possible presidential veto of bloated HEW budget, but that Carter will be able to make stick threatened vetoes of farm subsidy and water project bills. . . . One win for the White House: The repeal of the Hatch Act sailed through the House last week, despite heel-dragging from Republicans, but it may wait a while before getting through Sen. Abraham Ribicoff’s Government Operations Committee. Ribicoff voted against a similar bill last year. . . . Another Carter favorite, the consumer agency bill, is, according to sponsor Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D., N.Y.), “still 20 to 25 votes shy of House passage.” . . . Sensitive Washington antennae note an escalated carping at the White House. The Washington Post’s “Gossip” column last week made the obvious crack: “Isn’t it nice how Andy Young is growing up to be the Martha Mitchell of the Carter Administration.”