The Second-Best Suite

Democrats descended on Albuquerque's glittering Western Skies Hotel last week like sparrows on a cherry orchard. They filled its 250 rooms with politics and smoke, looked over three of the party's four leading presidential hopefuls, and went home with very little accomplished. The occasion: a regional meeting of the Democrats of 13 Western states.

Texas' Lyndon Johnson, an early arrival, announced coyly that he was not a candidate, then flew off to Indianapolis to announce, obliquely, that he was. A concerted effort was made to add Texas and Oklahoma to the Western bloc (271 delegate votes), and thus convert Johnson into a certified Westerner. It failed. (If some eager expansionists had their way, the West would begin somewhere around Ausable Chasm, N.Y.)

The hotel's management had an anguishing problem of protocol. Johnson, the first incipient President to arrive, was lodged, as was his right, in the best suite, and Hubert Humphrey had to make do with the second-best suite. As soon as Johnson departed, Hubert was moved into the best suite. The advance team for Jack Kennedy was offered the second-best suite for their man, but the offer was declined. Jack preferred to be on the ground floor. The relieved room clerk assigned him to Room 103 and moved Missouri Representative Charlie Brown, the lonesome representative of absent Stuart Symington, into the second-best suite. A good time was had by all.

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