A New Household Word

"One thing for sure--everybody knows my name. I'm a household word, just like Coca-Cola." The words were those of G. Harrold Carswell, who last week uncapped the surprise of the political season: quitting the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, he declared his candidacy for Florida's Republican senatorial nomination.

Carswell's announcement was greeted with enthusiasm in much of the South, where he recently became a hero and a martyr after the Senate rejected his nomination to the Supreme Court. Florida's Republican Senator Edward Gurney extolled the ex-judge as a "dream" candidate and "unbeatable" in the G.O.P.'s effort to take over the Senate seat of retiring Democrat Spessard Holland, 77.

Bow Out. Yet there were indications that Carswell's announcement had caught the White House by surprise and might hurt G.O.P. chances rather than help them. For Carswell's candidacy threatens to tear the Florida party apart in a bitter primary contest with Representative William Cramer, a tough, conservative G.O.P. veteran in the House. Cramer, who already had President Nixon's blessing for the race, stoutly refused to bow out. Last July, he said, Nixon called him to the White House and said: "Bill, the Senate needs you, the country needs you, and I need you." Added Cramer: "The President is a man of his word."

The Carswell candidacy was a coup for Florida's flamboyant Republican Governor, Claude Kirk, who sees in it an opportunity to boost his own sagging chances for reelection. Not only would Carswell's popularity in Florida help Kirk at the polls, but his nomination would eliminate Cramer, Kirk's longtime rival for control of the state G.O.P. It would also help Gurney, fearful of the powerful Cramer's rivalry in the Senate. Cramer dismissed the Carswell race as "just another one of Claudius' [Kirk's] circus acts."

To an extent, it is. After plumbing the depth, of public support for Carswell, Kirk and Gurney invited the judge to Gurney's Winter Park, Fla., home and persuaded him to make the race. Then, says Gurney, "We decided to run it past Harry Dent," the South Carolinian who is Nixon's chief political adviser for the South. Gurney says that Dent and Rogers C.B. Morton, the Republican national chairman, bought the idea. But Morton flatly denies it. When Dent called Morton, seemingly trying to get him to ask Cramer to step aside for Carswell, Morton says he refused. Later, in an unusually harsh statement for a supposedly neutral party chairman, Morton threw his arms around Cramer and denounced the Kirk-Gurney tactics as "unconscionable."

Though he maintained he had not spoken to Nixon personally, Carswell said: "You can be sure of one thing. I would not have left the Fifth Circuit Court unless I felt I had a friend somewhere"--presumably Dent. This left the appearance of a White House broken promise.

No Involvement. At first blush, the Carswell candidacy seems ideal for helping Richard Nixon reach his goal of taking over the seven seats needed for the Republican Senate control he wants. Putting Carswell on the ballot would also allow Cramer to retain his House seat and the 16 years of seniority that go with it. And certainly so astute a politician as Richard Nixon would not allow Harry Dent to go that far out on a limb without his permission.

Yet Nixon's spokesman claims there was "no presidential involvement" in the Carswell candidacy. He confirmed that Dent had been informed of Carswell's plans, but says that was the limit of the White House's role. It is difficult to believe that Nixon, who built his comeback on party loyalty, would allow Cramer to be so undercut by Claude Kirk. It was Cramer who helped hold the Florida delegation for Nixon in the 1968 convention, after Kirk had switched to Nelson Rockefeller.

In the meantime, it is the Florida Democrats who are in the worst bind. They supported Carswell's Supreme Court nomination avidly; now they must oppose him. In a telegram to Indiana's Senator Birch Bayh, a leader of the Carswell opposition, Florida Democratic Chairman Pat Thomas reflected their dilemma: "Thanks a lot," said Thomas. "It only hurts when I laugh."

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