Open Season

The 1961 congressional session had barely expired before the politicians were off and running toward the 1962 elections. Up for contest will be the entire House of Representatives, more than one-third of the Senate and 35 governorships--and although the elections are a full year away, the political gunfire could already be heard. Items:

> In Gettysburg, Dwight Eisenhower met with Republican National Chairman William Miller and the G.O.P.'s two congressional campaign committee chairmen, Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater and California's Representative Bob Wilson. After listening to President Kennedy's United Nations speech, Ike issued a public statement of praise for an "eloquent" summation of the peaceful aims of the U.S. But privately he was "damned sore" because Kennedy had ignored half a dozen Eisenhower plans for peace and disarmament. Politically, Ike was raring to go. He would be available, he told his visitors, for six or seven campaign speeches next year. Ike also suggested that the National Committee draw up a "statement of principles" that would draw together all elements of the party--from Goldwater to Rockefeller. Said he: "We've got to stop this fighting among ourselves."

> In Washington, the Administration's top political strategists began specific planning toward a big registration drive for 1962, a pinpoint analysis of the most vulnerable Republican congressional seats, a search for new Democratic workers on the local level. On the Republican side, National Chairman Miller announced that five groups of G.O.P. Congressmen--to be known as "Paul Revere Panels"--will begin touring the country this week, bearing down on "dangerous current trends in the Administration."

> In Newport, R. I., Press Secretary Pierre Salinger announced a series of regional "seminars," to take place in 14 or 15 large cities during November. The seminarians will include Cabinet members and other Administration officials. Al though the conferences are billed as nonpolitical, they will actually be sounding boards to extol Administration accomplishments in the domestic area.

>In Sioux Falls, S. Dak., Democrats from 14 Midwestern states powwowed with National Chairman John Bailey, who praised to the skies the record of his own party and denounced that of the opposition. "John F. Kennedy needs the obstructionist Republican votes of the Midwest replaced by progressive Democratic votes," cried Bailey, "in order to carry out the program you and I adopted at our convention and placed before the voters in our campaign."

> In Sun Valley, Idaho, a Western regional conference of Republicans got under way. National Chairman Miller fired round after round at the Admin istration: "Kennedy is spending more than any previous American President," and "Kennedy has contributed more confusion to American foreign policy than any President of memory," and "Kennedy has broken more campaign pledges than any other man elected to the White House." Among the featured speakers was Arizona's Goldwater. "The New Frontier is in its infancy," said Goldwater, "but already the people have had enough. When you strip them all down--take away all the fine phrases, all the bureaucratic window dressing, all the administrative gimmicks--you find that the New Frontier's answer to all problems is spending."

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