Happy's Days Are Here Again

Happy Days Are Here Again

When Kentucky's Governor A. B. (for Albert Benjamin) Chandler tried this spring to hand-pick the Democratic candidates in his state's two U.S. Senate races, he lost two quick falls to Senator Earle Clements and former Governor Lawrence Wetherby. Last week, in the latest round of Kentucky's Democratic wrestle, fast-moving "Happy" Chandler pinned both Clements and Wetherby to the mat and then began to stomp around the ring, waving and mugging at the crowd like a new champion.

In county and state conventions, Chandler had won unchallenged control of the state Democratic organization. His immediate rewards: endorsement as Kentucky's favorite-son candidate for President (with the state's 30 national-convention votes pledged to him until he releases them), election to the posts of Democratic National Committeeman and permanent chairman of the state convention, installation of his supporters in every key spot in the party organization.

Thus entrenched, Chandler let it be known that his presidential ambitions are not to be taken lightly. "We think now a deadlock [at the national convention] is definitely certain," he said. "We are shooting for the top spot. If a deadlock occurs, this may be our time." Seeking a psychological edge over other presidential hopefuls, Chandler began bargaining with Alabama to yield its No. 1 spot on the national Democratic roll call so that his name will be the first placed in nomination. If all else fails, he hinted, he might be willing to swap Kentucky's 30 votes for the vice-presidential spot on a ticket with New York's Averell Harriman.

How had Happy come back so far so fast? Simple: he ordered some 20,000 state employees to work and vote for him in the county and state conventions--or lose their jobs. "Not since Huey Long bulldozed his way to power in Louisiana has any man used such Gestapo-like tactics to gain a political goal," fumed the Louisville Courier-Journal. "Happy and his cohorts have drawn the line at nothing."

Such criticism did not ruffle Happy. "Isn't that a sad thing?" he beamed. "It all depends on whose ox is gored. We simply had the longest horns, and we did the most goring. Politics, you know, gets a little rough, and if you can't stand the gaff, you better get out of the game."

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