The Guest

While running for his present office, Jack Kennedy offered the opinion that a U.S. President should meet the working press ''at least once a week." Since taking office, Kennedy has held only 17 press conferences, recently went six weeks without any.* But he has been seeing the reporters' bosses.

Picking states at random, he has invited editors and publishers from Kentucky, New Jersey, Missouri and Washington into the White House to taste French cuisine and savor the Kennedy charm. Last week it was time for Texas--and Texas, of course, was different. Especially Dallas Morning News Publisher Edward Musgrove Dealey, 69, who was not content to pass the time with polite patter. He felt compelled to read a statement.

Contending that he was presenting grass-roots sentiment in Texas, the arch-conservative publisher read: "We need a man on horseback to lead this nation and many people in Texas and the Southwest think that you are riding Caroline's tricycle. The American people are aroused and rightly so. They are, as a body, way ahead of Washington. If you don't believe this, read the letters from readers' columns in most United States newspapers. The general opinion of the grass-roots thinking in this country is that you and your Administration are weak sisters."

When another publisher protested the statement as being both ill-timed and untrue, Dealey grandly called for a show of hands on whether he had been "out of line." Some took him seriously, raised their hands. The President suffered the manners of his guest gracefully, dismissed the statement with one curt comment: "I don't subscribe to that paper. I'm tired of reading its editorials."

* Presidential Press Secretary Pierre Salinger announced last week that even he would see newsmen less often. He said that he will hold only one briefing daily for the press instead of two, until Congress reconvenes to make more news in January. He said the President, however, "will continue to hold press conferences at regular intervals." Complained one newsman: "But they've been irregular." Asked about the President's once-expressed opinion that weekly conferences were advisable, Salinger suggested: "Why don't you ask him that question at his next press conference?" Retorted a voice from the rear: "If he holds one."

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