Blooding the New Boy

After three decades in public life. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller has a well-earned reputation as a shrewd, tough, skillful operator. But when he was sworn in as Vice President, Rockefeller also be came the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, and the moment he entered that historic chamber he was, as he frankly admitted, the new boy on the block.

Last week the new boy got blood ed, but he gave nearly as good as he got. During a convoluted debate about changing the rules on cloture-- the power to stop filibusters--Alabama's pro-filibuster Senator James Allen rose to say: "Mr. President, a parliamentary inquiry." Traditionally, the presiding officer gives Senators a chance to speak their piece, but Rockefeller ignored Allen, even though the Senator twice more raised his cry.

Shocked conservatives from both parties laced into Rockefeller. "Is this still the Senate of the United States?" Louisiana's Russell Long demanded. Said Arizona's Barry Goldwater: "I never thought I would see the day when the chair would take advantage."

Frantically, the Senate's parliamentarian whispered to the glowering Vice President, "Stay out of it--stay out of it!" Rockefeller replied with a growl: "I'm not going to take this from any body. I'm going to explain my position." He did, but that only made matters worse. No Senator could remember a presiding officer who had ever intruded into a Senate debate.

Despite the furor he had stirred, Rockefeller said later that in similar circumstances he might plunge into the fray again. The U.S. Senate has obviously not heard the last of the new boy.

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