Anybody notice? President Reagan has won a couple of foreign-policy battles. First, the Senate has repealed the Clark Amendment that tied the Administration’s hands on aid to rebel forces in Angola. (The only three Republicans to vote against the White House on this one were Sens. Mathias, Hatfield, and Specter.) It also voted to give Reagan a free hand on arms sales to Argentina and “sense of the Congress” support for his Pakistan arms deal. . . . On AWACS —the thorniest foreign issue of them all —things are moving, glacially. Says Sen. Sam Nunn (D., Ga.), who recently promised the President his support: “The President was in the end zone—now he’s on the playing field.” … In past fortnight Republicans Orrin Hatch and Alan Simpson have gone from opposing AWACS to supporting it; four usually staunch Reagan supporters (Sens. Lugar, Warner, and Denton, Republicans, and Harry Byrd, Independent) have moved from undecided to pro. Key to the situation is how five freshman Republicans, all now in the anti-AWACS category, will finally vote: Gorton (Wash.), Kasten (Wis.), Mattingly (Ga.), Murkowski (Alaska), and Quayle (Ind.). . . . Lined up on Reagan’s side are the last three Presidents of the United States, and 16 former Secretaries of Defense and of State.
Lots of familiar former Democratic warhorses will be hitting the hustings next spring, according to Alan Baron. Former Govs. George Wallace and Mike Dukakis want to recapture the statehouses in Alabama and Massachusetts; former Sen. Harold Hughes will make a gubernatorial race in Iowa; Adlai III would like his father’s old job back (polls show him running neck and neck, 43 to 43 per cent, with Republican Gov. Jim Thompson); and Eugene McCarthy, out of politics for a decade, is looking at moderate Republican Sen. David Durenberger’s seat in Minnesota. … In Massachusetts, Republican Rep. Margaret Heckler says thanks, but no thanks, she’d rather run for the House again than take on Teddy Kennedy. In the wings there, Dr. Mildred Jefferson, the anti-abortion leader. . . . Mixed bag: Conservative Rep. Jim Santini (D., Nev.), who did yeoman work for Reagan in the budget and tax-cut battles, won’t be running for the House next year: he intends to take on liberal Democratic Sen. Howard Cannon in a primary battle. . . . Out in California, the polls show Pete McCloskey running best against Jerry Brown (50 to 38) in that bustling race for Senator Hayakawa’s seat. . . . And in New York Lewis Lehrman seems to have the inside track against Gov. Hugh Carey.
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