■ Last week it was Sen. Robert Dole’s turn to plunge into Republican presidential sweepstakes. Dole, Jerry Ford’s vice presidential running-mate in 1976, says he’s going to run an upbeat, good-guy campaign this time. There was only room for one nice guy in the Rose Garden in 1976, explains Dole, “so I was given the briar patch assignment.” . . . What does Dole think of his rivals? Connally “wins the talent show”; John Anderson “may be the brightest of the lot”; Reagan’s “the front-runner”; Bush (here comes the old Dole) “peaked before the ink had dried.” . . . This and witticisms of a kind (after six months in the field Bush still gets only 1, 2, 3 per cent of the vote) seem not to upset Bush, who says what he’s working at is “becoming everybody’s second choice.” Bush has raised a $600,000 kitty and, with signing on of Charles Snider, George Wallace’s campaign manager in two presidential campaigns, reportedly also has gotten control of Wallace’s golden list of contributors. . . . Money and ideology are behind bust-up in the Phil Crane campaign staff last week which saw a number of Crane’s top aides quit, or be fired. Crane found himself $800,000 in debt and, more serious yet, at odds with direct-mail wizard Richard Viguerie, the New Right leader. Among those ousted is Arthur Finkelstein, the Pat Caddell of the Right, who masterminded the smashing re-election campaigns of White-House-targeted Sens. Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms last November. Finkelstein and other now-departed Crane aides apparently favored a broader-based campaign. . . . Viguerie, a Texan, suggested to Washington Post that Crane may not be his Number One boy after all. “I’ve been a long-time admirer of John Connally.”
■ Some weeks Jimmy Carter must wish he was still back on the peanut farm in Plains. Sample headlines, week of May 7. “POLL FINDS CARTER’S RATING AS LOW AS IT HAS EVER BEEN.” Carter’s popularity is back where it was last August: 72 per cent of the people think he’s doing a “poor” or “fair” job according to AP-NBC poll. . . . “CONGRESSMAN DISCLOSES MOVE TO DRAFT KENNEDY.” Rep. Richard Nolan of St. Paul, a political protégé of Vice President Mondale, feels “terrible” about it but he’s leading a nationwide move to get Kennedy on the ticket. . . . “CÉSAR CHAVEZ DISENCHANTED WITH PRESIDENT CARTER.” Chavez says Carter doesn’t care about farm workers. . . . “MOYNIHAN WON’T CAMPAIGN FOR CARTER” until Carter drops his opposition to tuition tax credits for parents sending their children to private and parochial schools. . . . “FLORIDA DEMOCRATS TO HOLD NOVEMBER PRESIDENTIAL PREFERENCE CONVENTION,” a move by Kennedy supporters to embarrass Carter well ahead of Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. . . . “NADER SAYS TIME NEARS FOR NEW POLITICAL PARTY.” Ralph Nader hopes to unite consumerists, anti-nukers, concerned citizens of all sorts, and radical trade unions in a new third party because the present “two-party system is bankrupt.”
Comments