Position Wanted

In the six months since his brother's death, Attorney General Robert Kennedy has been casting about for a future--and so far has found none. He has considered teaching, perhaps taking a college presidency. But inevitably, his search has centered on politics.

A few weeks ago, Pundit Walter Lippmann suggested that Kennedy run for Governor of New York in 1966.But Lippmann did not check his facts; Bobby did, and discovered that the state requires legal residence of at least five years for any gubernatorial candidate.

When One's Enough. How about returning to Massachusetts to make the first run of his life for elective office? Well, there are problems there too. Democratic Governor Endicott Peabody is up this fall for a second two-year term, but it would hardly seem sporting for Bobby to shove him aside. He could, of course, wait until 1966 and run for Republican Lev Saltonstall's Senate seat, but Brother Teddy is already in the Senate, and even Massachusetts might feel that one Senator Kennedy at a time is enough.

There was, and still is, talk that Lyndon Johnson might want Bobby to be his running mate this year. But that talk blows hot and cold--mostly cold. Johnson has not discussed the possibility with Bobby, and Bobby, who never was an intimate of the President, has not broached it.

Under serious consideration last week was still another possibility--running for the U.S. Senate from New York against Republican Kenneth Keating. Though Kennedy's legal voting residence is still in Massachusetts, that would not bar him from running from New York, since he would merely be required to be an inhabitant of the state at the time of his election.*

Launching Pad. Bobby's brother-in-law, Steve Smith, an experienced Kennedy political troubleshooter, has recently been scouting out Bobby's chances for the New York seat. The idea appeals greatly to many New York Democratic leaders; they have been desperately looking for a strong candidate to contest Keating, who has a formidable following. But there are dissonant voices as well. Upstate Democratic Congressman Samuel Stratton wants the nomination himself. New York City's Mayor Robert Wagner mumbled his reluctant acquiescence, but he would just as soon not deal with any threats to his party leadership, and the New York Times was plainly against it. While there is nothing illegal about a Kennedy candidacy in New York, said a Times editorial, "there is plenty that is cynical about it ... He would merely be choosing New York as a convenient launching pad for the political ambitions of himself and others."

Notwithstanding all the flurry, Robert Kennedy as of last week still hadn't made up his mind.

-"No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen." (Article I, Section 3, U.S. Constitution.)

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