■ The Equal Rights Amendment has just a year to go—38 states must have ratified it by March 1979 or it will be dead—and 1978 has treated it unkindly. In the first two months of the year, ERA has lost out in Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. (In the state of Mississippi it has never even been brought up.) As of now only 35 states have okayed it. . . . Carter aide Midge Costanza admitted last week that “things look very bad for ERA” and she blames it all on the right wing. . . . Sam Brown, the former antiwar activist who now heads ACTION (Vista and the Peace Corps), was slapped down when he tried to move meetings of his organization from states that have not passed ERA. “The position [on these transfers] which I expressed was in error,” said Brown after Sens. Herman Talmadge and Sam Nunn of Georgia wrote Attorney General Griffin Bell to protest Brown’s action. . . . The state of Missouri, meanwhile, which is on the receiving end of the ERA boycott, has taken NOW (National Organization for Women) to court, accusing it of antitrust violations. . . . But (ta-tara-ta) the Army has announced that it plans to use women as honor guards in future White House ceremonies.
■ What’s with the liberal Republicans? Sen. Clifford Case (ACU—zero) has taken out after Andy Young, blasting him for his statements about Rhodesia. (Could it be that Case fears the challenge in the GOP primary from former Reagan aide and former NR staffer Jeff Bell?) … In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Brooke (ACU—zero), is talking conservative: on Panama, it’s still wait-and-see; on SALT, he’s suspicious of the Russkies; on Taiwan, we should maintain our ties. (Could it be that he fears the primary challenge by conservative talk show host Avi Nelson and is trying to rally Massachusetts GOP conservatives around him?) … In New York, John Lindsay, late of Republican liberal ranks, reportedly will soon have a midtown campaign office to boost him for a senatorial race in 1980 against his old buddy Jacob Javits (ACU—zero). (Can we expect Javits to rejoin the Committee of One Million?)
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