■ How much money has been poured into the fight over the Panama Canal treaties? The Christian Science Monitor estimates $2.7 million, with the antitreaty lobby spending $5 for every $1 spent by pro-treaty forces. The Conservative Caucus (Howard Phillips/New Right) and the ACU are reported to have spent about $1 million each. . . . The Senate debate over the treaties is, says U.S. News, the Number One hit on Panamanian radio these days. . . . When Sen. Edward Zorinsky (one of the last of the “undecideds”) wanted to know what his constituents thought, the Omaha World Herald obliged. Its poll showed 62 per cent opposed to the treaties, but the vote split 45 to 40 per cent in favor of the treaties as they are now being revised. . . . Muriel Humphrey’s maiden speech was not, as expected, in favor of Humphrey-Hawkins, but in favor of the treaties. “We are a world power, but do we have to prove it by flexing our muscles against little Panama?” . . . Sen. Robert Packwood (R., Ore.) was outraged by the wheeling and dealing over the treaties by the White House, and threatened that he might vote against the treaties in protest. . . . Edward Brooke (R., Mass.), another last-minute fence-sitter, reported he had gotten a “rather crude” offer from Jimmy Carter to win his vote. . . . And that outraged Jody Powell, who said (first), “I don’t know of any trades on Panama Canal treaties,” and (second), “I suppose it depends on what you call a trade.” . . . John Wayne has been getting his lumps over his approval of the pacts from erstwhile admirers who have “started sending me letters saying I’d fallen off my horse too many times.”
■ Storm warnings ahead for Jimmy Carter on the Hill. Speaker Tip O’Neill, having consulted House members who have consulted their constituents, reports the new Social Security tax hikes (which will hit hard next Jan. 1) must be rolled back. Until a fortnight ago O’Neill had supported the White House on increased SS taxes. . . . Sen. Henry Jackson, whose disposition was not sweetened by the refusal of the Soviet Union to give him a visa, says there’s no way the Senate will ratify a SALT accord this year, thanks to Soviet-Cuban incursions in Africa. . . . Majority Leader Robert Byrd tends to agree. Cuban and Soviet “adventurism in the Horn,” he says, “is a direct challenge to detente.” . . . On the plus side, Communist advances in Africa have scared many Americans. Opinion Research says that 48 per cent of Americans now feel the U.S. should be stronger than the USSR, and most would be willing to pay for it.




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