Rocky's Slip Shows

When New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller told an international conference in Amsterdam last week that "we are living in a fluid period--more so than any other period of history," his words had a pathetically heartfelt ring. Though referring publicly to world affairs, Rockefeller was doubtless pondering in private the vagaries of politics back in New York City, where his grand design to hand-pick the next mayor had suddenly--and for Rocky, embarrassingly--come unraveled.

Republican Rockefeller had joined with New York Liberal Party Chief Alex Rose in tapping an unlikely candidate to run with their mutual blessing: Democrat Robert F. Wagner, 62, who served as mayor from 1954 to 1965. With a display of bosslike cajolery that had few parallels even in the turbulent world of New York politics, Rocky forced a majority of the city's G.O.P. leaders to accept Wagner. The leaders were naturally reluctant to back the man whom they had blamed for mismanaging the city for so long.

It was Wagner himself who solved the Republican leaders' dilemma. Angered over Republican slurs--a Bronx chief, John Calandra, had called him "a moron"--he rejected the G.O.P. endorsement. Said Wagner: "These Republican politicians could not care less about good government or what happens to New York City in the next four years." Hearing the news in Amsterdam, Rocky said weakly that he still considered Wagner "the best possibility for pulling the city together and being a healer in a very difficult period."

Still armed with the Liberals' endorsement, Wagner was vague on whether he would run for mayor at all. If he does, it is likely to be as a liberal independent, the same double-barreled tag worn by John V. Lindsay when he was elected to his second term four years ago.

Wagner's demurrer left the mayoral race in a state of high confusion. Republican State Senator John Marchi, 51, a law-and-order, balance-the-budget conservative from Staten Island who ran a poor third in the last mayoral election, now seems certain to win the G.O.P. nomination. The party's five county leaders seemed to like Marchi's brand of independent conservatism and quickly gave him their endorsement. Six candidates are vying for the Democratic slot. And then there is Wagner.

There is also Rockefeller, his dream of having a beholden mayor in City Hall swiftly evaporating. While he is probably not damaged in any lasting way, and still has his eye on an unprecedented fifth term as Governor and even the U.S. presidency, Rocky's political slip was showing last week in a way that must have made him blush.

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