The Needle Man

Introduced as a man who "carries a long needle and loves to jab it into the Democrats." Republican National Chairman William E. Miller lived up to his billing last week at a regional conference of some 100 Midwestern Republicans in Minneapolis. "President Kennedy," he said, "has at last decided to stand up to Chester Bowles. This is gratifying in view of his apparent unwillingness to stand up to Khrushchev." And, for Gunsmoke televiewers, he added: "Well, at least we can breathe one sigh of relief, because they can't put Bowles in the Treasury Department. He couldn't stand to call his boss every morning and say. 'Mr. Dillon, this is Chester.' "

Ever since becoming G.O.P. chairman last June, Miller, a ten-year Congressman from upstate New York, has been jabbing away at the opposition. His targets range from Adlai Stevenson ("completely inept") to Averell Harriman ("He loused up Laos") to Presidential Press Secretary

Pierre Salinger ("the thinking man's filter") and the rest of the White House staff ("If President Kennedy turns around in his rocking chair, he'll find more extremists in the White House than any place else").

But words are not Miller's only weapons, and he has proved himself a tough, skillful party organizer. He began his new job by firing 40 members of the National Committee staff, explaining: "They were inclined to think they were a clan all to themselves and had to answer to no one." He has helped achieve a new and needed degree of cooperation between the National Committee, the Republican House Campaign Committee, headed by California's Representative Bob Wilson, and the Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Arizona's Barry Goldwater. "Miller. Wilson and Goldwater--that's one troika that works." says Miller. But his biggest effort has been in setting up four regional conferences--in Hartford, Sun Valley, Atlanta and last week's in Minneapolis--to meet party leaders of all 50 states. The main aim of the meetings: to find attractive G.O.P. candidates for next year's congressional elections. Says Chairman Miller: "We can't expect anybody to take us seriously if we're going to run turkeys."

But Miller's way with words and his organizational talents have failed to answer a substantive question: Whom, if anyone, is he working for? Last week, after leaving Minnesota. Miller went to New York City to speak to a group of Republican women. One of them asked him: "Who is the nominal leader of the Republican Party?" Miller shrugged. Said he: "I saw Nixon as the titular head, but Nixon declined this honor. I bestowed it on President Eisenhower, but he rejected it." Then he turned, grinning, to the startled lady. "I don't know," he said. "Do you want to be?"

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