■ About aid to North Vietnam: We shouldn’t give them “one brick or one dime,” says Joe McCain, brother of POW Commander John S. McCain III, released last week, until every one of our men missing in action is accounted for. “For the Communists to say they know nothing of more than three-fourths of all the men shot down is ludicrous. They must have a body, a plane part, or something.” . . . Richard Vail, owner of The Republican (100,-000 subscribers in California), is placing free job-wanted ads in his classifieds for returning Vietnam veterans. . . . The IRS has designated a representative in each of its 58 districts to handle POW tax problems. . . . They may be of help to Navy pilot Lt. David Rehmann who says he occupied his mind during his captivity “with the capitalist system—thinking up ways to make money.” . . . John Downey, returning after twenty years in a Chinese prison, says he won’t write a book because “life in a Chinese prison is a crashing bore.” . . . Joseph Rose, who asked his girl to marry him the night before he left for Vietnam, was married to her in Valley Forge Army Hospital last week—nearly six years later—after five years in a Vietcong jail.
■ The usually well-informed Gallagher Report says a group called “Citizens for Nixon ’76” is planning a $4-million ad campaign for repeal of the 22nd Amendment—that’s the one that outlaws a third term for U.S. Presidents.. . . On the political realignment front: Mayor Frank Rizzo of Philadelphia hints he’ll switch parties and run for governor, as a Republican, against Democrat Milton Shapp, in 1974. . . . Liberal Republican Linwood Holton of Virginia says he is pleased that former Democrat (and conservative) Gov. Mills Godwin will accept the GOP nomination for governor if it is offered him. “The vows,” said Holton, “will be taken jointly by the two [Godwin and the GOP] at the ceremony [convention] in June—a June wedding.” . . . Republicans have gained one seat in the House: Don Young has been elected to replace Democrat Nick Begich who disappeared on a flight in Alaska last fall along with Rep. Hale Boggs (D., La.). . . . Former Sen. Gordon Allott, who lost in November, has been named general counsel to the ICC. . . . Fr. Robert Drinan (D., Mass.) has already broken his Lenten resolution. “I have given up beating on the Department of Justice for Lent,” he said at a committee hearing the other day, “but it is a little strange that only the Department of Justice has spoken out against the shield law [to protect news sources].” . . . Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, on the growing battle of the budget: “Asking Democrats to hold down spending is like asking an alcoholic to be your bartender.”
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