Short Goodbye

George Wallace barks again

Last month Alabama Governor George Wallace secluded himself in a cottage on the Gulf Coast and decided that he had no desire to live among the "pointy-headed bureaucrats" in Washington. So he withdrew from the scramble for the Senate seat held by retiring John Sparkman.

It looked as if ole George was leaving politics after 16 years as the self-styled message-bearer of disaffected Americans. His longtime sparring partners in the press wrote smug political obituaries. Said the New York Times: "His were the resentful people, who wave flags and are frightened by those who look 'different.' " The Washington Post recalled: "His success obliged those other politicians to address both the Wallace constituency and the Wallace issues, without adopting the discredited Wallace racial line."

But the editorialists may have spoken too soon. As Wallace himself had warned, in a valedictory published in the Post three days earlier: "One of the reasons, I suppose, that I have had such a long political career is that every time I finished a campaign and sat down to rest, here would come the Post, barking at my feet."

Last week, a day after the funeral for Alabama Senator James Allen, Wallace offered to appoint Allen's widow Maryon as interim Senator. She was "humbled" to accept--and added that she might run for the seat herself in a special election in the fall. Wallace replied that she would have some stiff opposition. Letters have poured in from supporters asking him to reconsider his retirement. Unless he changes his mind again, he will be running for Allen's seat himself. The old dog is barking back.

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