"Buttinsky Damyankees . . ."

Outside Mississippi, their names were a byword and a hissing. But if any outsiders thought that national contempt could defeat ugly little Theodore Gilmore ("The Man") Bilbo, 68, or frenetic John E. Rankin, 64, in Mississippi's Democratic primary, they were ignorant of Mississippi -- and the South.

Last week, the returns were in, and the most sinister buffoons in the Congress of the U.S. were reelected. Despite the scandal that has marked his 38-year political career, "The Man" had beaten four opponents to win a third Senate term by a 3,824 majority (fewer than 200,000 of Mississippi's 632,500 whites over 21 voted). Natty, ranting, John Rankin, who had not bothered to stump his district, was returned to the House for the 14th time.

For those outsiders who wondered what the answer was, Oliver Emmerich, of the McComb, Miss. Enterprise-Journal, who had fought Bilbo on his editorial page, had an illuminating one. Said he: "Those individuals who won with Bilbo are happy. Those who lost are happy too, for they have the satisfaction of knowing that Walter Winchell and a lot of his ilk failed to impress Mississippians . . . from without." Headline on his editorial: BUTTINSKY DAMYANKEES OF NORTH, EAST, PLUS C.I.O., FAIL TO STOP STORMY PETREL.

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