The Death of the 87th

Not since Little Eva had there been such a deathbed scene. The 87th Congress expired interminably, and in oratorical anguish. But at least and at last it died.

Countless times, the 87th seemed about to draw its last breath. At one point Senate Whip Hubert Humphrey definitely predicted a midweek adjournment. But Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield knew better. Asked about Humphrey's forecast, he simply sighed: "What week?" A newsman suggested to Mansfield that in Election Year 1962. a lot of members of Congress were by now praying for adjournment. Retorted Mansfield: "If I pray any more, I'm going to have housemaid's knee."

What had happened? It was quite simple. Every time the Democratic 87th got ready to die reasonably, a senior Democratic Solon demanded the right to take one last, long gasp.

Old Friends & Heavy Hearts. For a while, it was Florida's Democratic Senator George Smathers who held things up. Smathers boasts of his deep and abiding personal friendship with Jack Kennedy. But that relationship apparently does not extend to politics. As it happened, Smathers was the sponsor of a bill, passed overwhelmingly by both branches of Congress, that would permit self-employed people to take tax deductions on their own pension programs. President Kennedy did not like the bill, since it would mean an unscheduled loss of tax revenue. Smathers had a strong hunch that the President meant to let it die by pocket veto. But Smathers also knew that he had the votes to override any veto--so long as Congress stayed in session. He therefore fought a shrewd delaying action against adjournment--and Kennedy finally signed the measure.

Then there was Georgia's Democratic Senator Richard Russell. He was annoyed because the House had declined to approve several items in the Agriculture Department's appropriations bill that would have sent federal money to Georgia. He was particularly interested in a $1.600.000 grant to set up a peanut research laboratory. Against the House's recalcitrance, Russell made an issue of Senate prerogatives. Cried he: "If the Senate has an ounce of self-respect, it will stay in session until Christmas, if it takes this to establish our position as a co-equal body in every respect." Russell finally announced that with "a heavy heart" he had given way on the peanut laboratory.

Old Bastards & Justice. Next came a scrap between Oklahoma's Democratic Senator Robert Kerr and Virginia's Democratic Representative Howard Smith, chairman of the Rules Committee. The Senate had added $2 billion to the House-passed $2.3 billion rivers and harbors bill--the traditional pork-barrel measure. Conservative Smith was having none of such nonsense, and Congress could not adjourn until he and Kerr, who championed the Senate action, reached some sort of un derstanding. Confided Kerr: "This is between two old bastards--Bob Kerr and Howard Smith. Smith is determined to maintain his position. I am determined to maintain mine." In the end. Kerr gave way.

Was that the end of it? No indeed.

Missouri's cantankerous Democratic Representative Clarence Cannon, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, had taken umbrage at the way the Senate had been upping his antes on a supplemental appropriations bill. Democratic leaders were desperate by this time. President Kennedy, off on the campaign trail, pleaded with Cannon by telephone; no dice. Democratic Whip Hale Boggs, emerging from a meeting, growled: "I feel like punching somebody in the nose." That bill was stymied, but Cannon was not through. When the final appropriations bill came to the House floor late last

Friday night, Cannon pettishly demanded a quorum call. By this time, as Cannon well knew, there were scores of Representatives back home campaigning. There was no quorum, so the House had to meet again the next day.

On Saturday there was a House quorum, and the surly Representatives voted down Cannon's money-saving motions. That brought a furious floor blast from Cannon against the whole political atmosphere on the Hill. "Gentlemen," he roared, "justice is for barter and sale to the highest bidder. No one thinks about principle any more. They are ready to sell justice!" Then he proceeded to astonish his colleagues with direct, personal attacks on the leaders of his own party in the House, wound up with a withering slap at Speaker John McCormack. "I have sat under ten Speakers," roared Cannon. "I have never seen such biased and inept leadership!"

With Cannon's fiery admonishments ringing in their ears, the members quickly and at long last laid the 87th Congress to rest.

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