Walking the Tightrope

Meeting behind closed doors last week with Republican congressional leaders, President Eisenhower named no names, wagged no finger in individual faces, but made his point hard and strong. Republican talk of an antirecession tax cut, he said, is premature and dangerous. Those who were taking the tax-cut line were unable to say "where we're going to get the money" to run the Government. As he spoke, his guests stole embarrassed glances at a man whose blush was rising out of his collar: Vice President Richard Nixon, who just the day before had got out front of the White House on tax-cut policy.

Nixon had called half a dozen reporters into his office for some candid talk about recession. He carefully avoided any call for a tax cut--but he did say that if the U.S. is "going to go down the spending road or the [tax] cut road," then he preferred the tax-cut road. When should such a decision be made? Replied Nixon: "In a few weeks."

Actually, Nixon's remarks were pretty much in line with admitted Administration policy. Said a top White House staffer: "He went further than we have gone, but he was consistent." And his statement was notably restrained as compared with his private tax-cutting views: on Capitol Hill Nixon is under heavy pressure from congressional Republicans who want dramatic Administration antirecession action. He believes a tax cut is inevitable--and he wants Republicans to get the political credit.

Next Step? Administration policy, President Eisenhower made clear, is that there is nothing inevitable about a tax cut. Nixon got the word, but his strongest Cabinet supporter, Labor Secretary James Mitchell--who was not at the President's conference--apparently did not. That same day, Jim Mitchell rose before an A.F.L.-C.I.O. "Emergency Economic Conference," said flatly that a tax cut "is the next big step," claimed that the Administration already had a plan ready for use.

Another rebuke was soon forthcoming. First, White House Press Secretary James Hagerty bluntly denied that the Administration had a tax-cutting plan. Next, Hagerty arranged an unusual White House press conference for Treasury Secretary Robert Anderson, who repeated the denial. Finally, Anderson called his fellow Texan, House Speaker Sam Rayburn, with assurances that he, Bob Anderson, not Richard Nixon or James Mitchell, was the Administration's fiscal spokesman.

Clearly, Dick Nixon's sure foot had slipped just a bit in the course of walking the tightest rope in U.S. politics. That rope stretches between complete loyalty to Dwight Eisenhower and the unhappy knowledge that the Republican Party, under the leadership of a President who simply does not care much about partisan politics, is losing both the headlines and the political battles by slow reaction to popular issues.

While walking his tightrope, Nixon has made himself the most useful vice president in history. He has taken six trips abroad as the President's representative, and a Latin American tour is planned for this spring. He presides over both the National Security Council and the Cabinet when Ike is absent. He has consistently gone all-out for Administration programs, even those that are unpopular with large and powerful Republican groups; e.g., Nixon is a leading spokesman for foreign aid and liberalized foreign trade.

Hard Sell? But in recent months Nixon's dissatisfaction with the Eisenhower Administration's political savvy has caused him to take political stands independent of the White House, leaving the President free to disown him if he goes too far. Thus, while White House spokesmen were still scoffing at Sputnik I as a "silly bauble," Nixon publicly proclaimed the Russian satellite a serious, important challenge to U.S. technology. He works hard with Republican National Chairman Meade Alcorn to bolster the morale of Republican organizations across the country, privately wishes that Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson would resign to help the party in the farm states. Again, it was his awareness of the Administration's political shortcomings that last week moved Nixon out front on the tax issue.

What happened dramatizes Nixon's dilemma: he is by far the leading candidate for the 1960 Republican presidential nomination.* That nomination may be hardly worth having if the Administration fails to sell its record in the political market. But if Nixon jumps out and oversells, he might lose the good will of the only man who could deny him the nomination, Dwight Eisenhower himself.

*The Gallup poll showed last week that Nixon is favored for the G.O.P. nomination by a whopping 64% of Republican voters, as against 48% last November, and by 40% of independents, against 24% in November. Runner-up among Republicans: California's Senator William Knowland, with 9%. Among independents: Harold Stassen, 12%.

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