Some canny observers believe John Connally’s switch to the Republican Party will come sooner than is generally expected—perhaps before June. In fact, they believe the switch might have taken place by now were it not for the publicity given the President’s conversation with William Ruck- elshaus, during which the President lavished praise on Connally and indicated he thought Connally would win the 1976 Republican presidential nomination. The President spoke with Ruck- elshaus in private. Ruckelshaus revealed the conversation to newsmen the next day. It would have looked a bit too orchestrated if Connally’s conversion had come immediately after word of the President’s encomium had got around town.
■ At 12:45 p.m. December 26, 1950, President Truman signed a proclamation that “recent events in Korea and elsewhere constitute a grave threat to the peace of the world.” This proclamation officially initiated a “state of national emergency” and triggered a slew of standby powers—no one knows how many—for the President. But the “emergency” proclamation did not have a built-in termination date, and now no one knows quite how to go about terminating it. In an official emergency the President has special powers conferred on him by as many as three hundred laws, laws that empower him to act, without congressional consent, to limit travel by Americans, mobilize industries, seize real estate, suspend broadcasting regulations, control consumer credit, sell stocks of strategic materials, and extend military enlistments. The Department of Defense list of the President’s emergency powers covers 249 pages and may not be complete.
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