According to John

After he was elected mayor of New York City as a fusion candidate of the Republican and Liberal parties in 1965, John Vliet Lindsay pledged a nonpartisan administration. Republican Nelson Rockefeller could have used some cam paign support from the mayor in last year's gubernatorial race, but Lindsay blandly observed that his office was above politics and for the most part kept his silence.

Last week, however, as the pollsters reported in with ever brighter portents for the G.O.P., Lindsay suddenly became quite vocal. Visiting Washington for a meeting of the President's Commission on Civil Disorders, of which he is vice chairman, Republican Lindsay agreed to sit down with reporters from several newspapers for a "backgrounding" session.

According to John, the Republicans' strongest nominee for '68 would be Illinois Senator Charles Percy, a fresh political personality who opposes the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam and would thus give the voters an alternative to Lyndon Johnson's foreign policy. Some of Lindsay's friends think that John Lindsay would make an ideal running mate for Percy, but the mayor maintained that he had no desire to crowd himself into the picture. Another of his strong favorites for the presidency, Lindsay allowed, would be Nelson Rockefeller. The endorsement was diplomatic, since Lindsay and Rockefeller have lost no love on each other since the mayor took office.

Mickey Could Win. Scanning the rest of the field, Lindsay remarked that Michigan's Governor George Romney is probably dead politically, and was moribund even before he weighed in with his "brainwashing" blooper. Richard Nixon would be acceptable unless he pursued an overly militant line on the war. Ronald Reagan would be anathema to the party moderates; Lindsay thinks that the conservatives would probably not even press Reagan's candidacy, since they want a Republican victory this time rather than another Goldwater-style debacle.

If the elections were held now, however, Lindsay thinks it would matter little who the Republican candidate was.

At this stage, he said, Mickey Mouse could beat Lyndon Johnson.

By the Washington rules on a "backgrounder," reporters may report what was said without direct attribution to the public official who said it. Stretching the rule just a bit, reporters at the Lindsay session filed stories detailing his views and crediting their information to the mayor's "political friends." When the stories appeared, Lindsay said testily that there was "no basis" for them. He added: "When I have something to say on this, I will talk for myself."

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