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University Daily Kansan
Monday, May 4, 1964
LBJ Sinks GOP Hopes For House Seats
WASHINGTON — (UPI)— Except for outraged cries from the Beagle bloc, Congressional Republicans with a close ear to the ground are a little unhappy at the lack of yelps from the homefolks about President Johnson's performance.
For the record they still talk about retrieving some seats in the Senate in the November election and even of gaining control of the House. Privately, some Republicans are forecasting dog days for the GOP on Capitol Hill.
DEMOCRATS ARE downright optimistic about the coming Congressional test. They are reluctant to admit how happy they think the vote hunting will be with LBJ at the head of the pack.
"It looks so good right now I'm almost afraid to talk about it," said one normally cautious Democratic strategist with a good record for private forecasts on Congressional election results.
The Democrats contend that one measure of the Republican distress is the enthusiasm with which the GOP seized on the GOP seized on the White House fiasco in which Johnson showed off Lucy Baines' Beagles by lifting them up by the ears.
"Lyndon has grabbed all their issues," one party worker asserted.
AND NOBODY ON Capitol Hill seriously thinks the current dog lovers' squawks will carry over into November. Long before then, everybody assumes the agile Johnson will have established as second to none his affection for dogs and probably cats for good measure. And he likely will figure some way to endear himself also to bird watchers and lovers of squirrels.
As much as they liked the late President Kennedy, and as shocked as they were at his death, many Democrats now are convinced Johnson's performance to date has been better than Kennedy's. Barring upsets between now and November, they believe, he will help bag more House seats for the party than it now claims and more than it might have expected to win with Kennedy heading the ticket.
OFFICIALLY ANYWAY, the GOP soffs at this thinking.
"It's true Johnson has bolstered his own position," says House Republican Whip Leslie C. Arends of Illinois. "And he's getting results in the Congress. But I don't think it will have much effect on the Congressional election. Even President Eisenhower wasn't able to do much about electing members of Congress."
Rep. Bob Wilson, R-Calif., chairman of the House GOP Campaign Committee, says: "On balance I don't see a great change. I don't think any President ordinarily pulls in a lot of House seats."
(There is a record both for and against this contention. Eisenhower in 1962 upset a Democratic reign in both Houses of Congress but two years later the Democrats recovered control and haven't surrendered it since. Yet while Kennedy was edging out Nixon in 1960, Republicans were picking up 22 seats in the House.)
"WE EXPECT THAT unless the civil rights issue develops into further demonstrations Johnson will do better in the South than Kennedy would have done," Wilson told a reporter.
Official Bulletin
Catholic Mass, 5 p.m. St. Lawrence Chapel, 1910 Stratford Rd.
Graduate Discussion Group, 7:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence Center, 1910 Stratford Rd.
"What I have learned as a Catholic at KU."
AWS Honors Night, 8:15 p.m., University Theater.
Episcopal Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth.
TOMORROW
Catholic Masses, 6:45 a.m. 5 p.m.
Lawrence Chapel, 1910 Stratford Rd
Air Force Recruiting, 10-3-30 p.m.
Air Force Recruiting, 10-3-30 p.m.
Eberhart will answer questions and take applications for officer training school
Varsity Tennis, 2.30 p.m., KU-KSU
Varsity emits, 2:30 p.m. Room
All rooms in room 1472
Residents Inventory Form, 61
Beginners Inquiry Forum, 7 p.m. St.
Lawrence Center, 1915 Strattford Rd.
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, 7:30
pass. Kansas Union Discussion: Quiet
Time.
Inquirer Classes, 7:30 p.m., Canterbury House.
Senior Recital, 8 p.m. Swarthout Hall.
Barbara Bolton Howell, pianist.
Lawrence Center, 1815 Stratford Rd.
Provincial Holy Communion, 9:30 pm.
Danforth.
One northwestern Republican member who did not want his name used said that's not the way his mail from home has been reading. A hot issue in the northwest is lumber imports, and he called how Republicans were happily braced for
"And we may not have as many attractive candidates anxious to run in the South. But in the northeast we feel our chances are a little bit better. So we're not pessimistic about picking up quite a few seats."
some fallout when Johnson vetoed a bill to require that outside lumber be labeled.
"But I didn't get a single protest about it," he said.
Republicans in Congress are especially bitter about what Johnson has done to their all-time favorite issue, which is saving the taxpayers' money. He has practically preempted the field, even turning out lights at the White House.
Of course they say that is a phony
and they can easily prove that if Johnson spent all of each working day clicking light switches the saving couldn't even be spotted in a federal budget that, year in and year out, with whatever party in power, seems to keep edging up.
"The only hope for a real reduction in spending lies with the election of a Republican-controlled House of Representatives where spending starts," said House GOP leader Charles A. Halleck of Indiana.
MEMO
Take Housemother to Dinner Tonite
HOLIDAY INN RESTAURANT
REMEMBER MOTHER'S DAY