The Republocrats

President Nixon seldom makes house calls. But last week he boarded Air Force One at his Key Biscayne retreat to fly 1,500 miles for a Texas hoe-down at the ranch of his treasured Treasury Secretary, John Connally. For the President even to consider such an odyssey is firm reinforcement of Connally's towering stature in Washington. Indeed, it was Connally who carried the President's wreath of carnations and cornflowers to the Abraham Lincoln catafalque on which J. Edgar Hoover lay in state last week. That and the splashy Texas party left no doubt as to where nominal Democrat Connally stands in Nixon's affections.

Even if Nixon's visit had underlying political significance, its surface was just easygoing Texas sociability. Conservative Texas is a place where Nixon is comfortable, and he was relaxed and smiling as he and Pat arrived before a cheering crowd of thousands at Randolph Air Force Base. A helicopter whisked Nixon and the First Lady to the Connally ranch 35 miles south, where Nixon greeted a casually clad Connally with an immediate apology. "I'm sorry we scared your cattle," he said.

Top of Texas. Toward dusk the wind picked up and the skies around the ranch rattled with thunder--not from rain, but from the engines of executive jets that put down on the ranch's 4,100-ft. landing strip. On the spacious lawn in front of the Connallys' elegant two-story ranch house, workmen put the finishing touches on baskets of Texas wild flowers hung from the limbs of live oak trees. Bouquets of chrysanthemums floated in the 40-ft. swimming pool behind the house. Cooks hovered over charcoal broilers, tending to some 200 lbs. of home-grown beef tenderloin; others monitored the huge vats where corn-on-the-cob was steaming.

Arriving guests were introduced to Nixon by Connally in a formal reception in the ranch's high-ceilinged living room. The guest list was compiled from the very top of the Texas power pyramid: Dallas Billionaire H. Ross Perot, H.L. Hunt's son Nelson, John Murchison, former Dallas Mayor Erik Jonsson, Houston Millionairess Ima Hogg, construction Magnate George Brown and Fort Worth's Perry Bass, who helped hoist Connally to political power. Publicly, most of the guests were Democrats; in the eccentricities of Texas politics even the most hidebound conservatives pay lip service to traditional ties to the Democratic Party.

Still, there was no doubt that these were Nixon people; many had quietly financed Republican candidates in the past. One wag dubbed the shindig "the Republocrat Convention." As Connally greeted Fort Worth Oilman W.A. Moncrief, he said to Nixon: "This man is a big giver, Mr. President, and he never asks for anything in return."

But the mood of the party was generally light. When Nixon asked 82-year-old W.W. McAllister, former mayor of San Antonio, his secret of youth, the peppery McAllister replied: "If I knew that I'd keep it to myself and sell it." The Nixons and the Connallys moved out to an open meadow to watch the show every visitor to Texas must eventually see: a demonstration of quarter-horse agility. The President timidly patted one of the animals and admitted: "I've never been on a horse." Nellie Connally took the President's hand and said: "I haven't either."

After a buffet dinner, the President told the guests just the things they wanted to hear: up with the oil-depletion allowance, down with busing, and hardline talk on Viet Nam. Then he and Connally went into their mutual-admiration-society routine. Connally said of Nixon: "I respect this particular President of the United States for the manner in which he conducts himself." Nixon responded: "John Connally . . . is, in my view, a man who has demonstrated he is capable of holding any job in the U.S. that he would like to pursue. I am just glad he is not seeking the Democratic nomination."

The last line was pure political politesse, but it was the "any job in the U.S." that stirred fresh speculation that Connally would be invited to bolt the Democratic Party and replace Spiro Agnew as Nixon's running mate.

Dumping Agnew? There are influential Republicans who have privately urged Nixon to dump the Vice President in Connally's favor. They argue that Connally can draw the same conservative support that Agnew can --with the guaranteed addition of Texas' electoral votes, which Hubert Humphrey took in 1968. As a personality and quick-study administrator, Connally has an edge on Agnew; the Vice President tends to be a hit only with those of his particular persuasion, while Connally jabs and feints his way through congressional hearings and news conferences with a down-home panache that charms even his opponents.

Nixon has quietly told the pro-Connally Republicans that he will keep his options open--which plainly means that he has plenty of time to test opinion and size up the Democratic presidential nominee before making his choice. However, Agnew's chances of remaining with the President have steadily improved over the past few months, and it is generally assumed in Washington these days that Agnew will be on the slate again. He serves to hold Nixon's right flank in place.

Still, these are precarious times for the President, and Agnew has been known to blunder into the doghouse before. Said one White House aide: "I'd have to put odds on Agnew being renominated. But of course, if the boss is down ten points to the Democrats in August, then all bets are off. Anybody's expendable then."

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