Change of Course

Congressional Democrats had been aching for months to get back home and start pelting the Eisenhower Administration with a juicy collection of overripe campaign fruit: the "Eisenhower Recession," the "Pentagon Mess" that saw the U.S. lag behind Russia in technological progress, the "Vicuna Coat Case" involving White House Staff Chief Sherman Adams and influence-buying Boston Millionaire Bernard Goldfine. But last week, about ready to head for the hustings, Capitol Hill Democrats were dismayed to find that the rush of world events had drastically cut into their ammunition supply. Items:

P: Signs of recession's end were so plentiful last week that the Federal Reserve

Board allowed San Francisco's Federal Reserve Bank to raise its discount rate--the interest charged on loans to member banks--in a switch to a tighter-money policy to be extended to all Federal Reserve banks (see BUSINESS). P: The defense reorganization bill, pushed through a balky Congress by the Administration, was a solid step toward solving the Pentagon's problems. And the historic transpolar voyages of nuclear submarines Nautilus and Skate were sharp reminders --along with three satellites aloft, and a spectacular series of record performances by U.S. aircraft--that the nation is much farther along in technological progress than it seemed in the flap after Sputnik I. P: President Eisenhower's decision to send U.S. troops to Lebanon diverted public attention from the Adams-Goldfine affair --and boosted the President's popularity with the voters. The Gallup poll reported last week that 58% of voters questioned said they approve of the way the President is handling his job, only 27% said they disapprove (15% had no opinion). Back in April a Gallup survey showed 49% approving, 35% disapproving.

The Democrats turned a brave face to their changed situation. "Our primary issue is the country's welfare, and we are happy that through the course of events some of the issues, which once seemed so important, are now in the process of disappearing." said Florida's George Smathers, chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. But the shift of issues was plainly forcing the Democrats toward a change in campaign strategy. With most of the steam gone from some of their liveliest stumping topics, they began heading back to the course steered all along by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson: booming the "responsible" Democratic Party, which has proved that it can work constructively with a Republican President. That was the same strategy that returned Democratic majorities to Congress both in 1954 and 1956.

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