Behind the Scenes

Rocky's Road? Highly placed, Nixon-minded Republican politicos whistle in the dark that New York's governor Nelson Rockefeller, 50, will bow gracefully out of a 1960 contest with Vice President Nixon, 46, before an argument that, runs thus: 1) Rockefeller partisans will soon discover that Nixon has a solid, unbreakable, nationwide hold on state chairmen, national committeemen and convention delegates; 2) Rockefeller will announce next spring that he will not be a presidential candidate and that he intends to run for re-election as Governor in 1962; 3) Nixon will be re-elected President in 1964, and being constitutionally unable to run again, will appoint Rockefeller Secretary of State and start him toward a presidential buildup for 1968. The alleged clincher: if Nixon is defeated in 1960, Rockefeller can jump into the running in 1964.

Racket Ruckus. Every member of Arkansas' John McClellan's Senate labor-rackets investigating committee is fervently against labor rackets, but some members are beginning to raise a private eyebrow at the way Committee Counsel Robert Kennedy, 32, runs the show. "The Senators," says a Republican member of the committee, "don't have the slightest idea who is to be called, but we can read the witness lists in the newspapers. The witnesses are gangsters, and you can't defend them. Even so, a lot of the things that are done are unfair. For example, staff investigators will be put on the stand and will make statements without any proof. These statements become part of the record, but often they are nothing more than the investigator's belief. There is no effective rebuttal. The effect is that some witnesses who might testify if they got a fairer chance take the Fifth Amendment. I don't say they would testify. I just wonder if they might.''

Seaton's Stand. Interior Secretary Fred Seaton helped mightily to promote statehood for Alaska and Hawaii. But during Alaska's own election campaigns. Seaton's razzle-dazzle campaigning got a cool reception, largely because he was regarded as the voice of the federal "absentee landlord" in Washington. Despite his lavish promises of Republican federal help, Alaska's Democrats rolled up a big victory. Result: "Landlord"' Seaton will electioneer in low key--and only if invited--in the campaign for the June primaries now beginning in Hawaii.

Coming Attractions. The International Cooperation Administration, already irked by the bestselling success of the semi-fictional The Ugly American (which describes bumbling failures of U.S. diplomats and foreign aidsters in Asian countries), has something new to worry about. Universal-International is planning to film the book in Thailand, and harried ICA pressmen can already visualize reaction of worldwide movie audiences to an almond-eyed Elizabeth Taylor or Kim Novak being pushed around by a bumptious young U.S. foreign aid boy abroad, a banality-mouthing U.S. Senator in Asia, or a potty U.S. ambassador. The moviemakers are asking for State Department cooperation, and ICA is opposed.

Case-Hardened. New Jersey's liberal Republican Senator Clifford Case will have plenty of back-home trouble when he comes up for re-election next year. On a recent Jerseywide tour, G.O.P. State Chairman Charles Erdman Jr., a Case man, found that most county chairmen --including those who fought Cliff Case right down to his hairbreadth election in 1954--oppose his renomination in 1960. Already stumping the state with plenty of backing: ultraconservative Senate Aspirant Robert Morris, onetime chief counsel for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, who was defeated for the G.O.P. nomination last year.

Johnson v. Boswells. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who has always held as talented a grip on the Senate press gallery as he has on the U.S. Senate, is having his first big falling out with the press. He complains that newsmen are ignoring his grave statements on global issues (the need to stick together, to reason together as reasonable men and women, to plan beyond Berlin, to get the truth--either 1) unvarnished, or 2) with the bark off, to mobilize for peace, etc., etc.). Special point of irritation: press reports on his lavishly renovated, greatly enlarged Senate office, complete with palatial bathroom. Big reason for the Johnsonian irritability with his Boswells, chirps a fellow Democratic Senator, is that "Lyndon's a candidate."

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