Jam Session

During the campaign, Democratic orators promised a grand symphony as pure as the lost chord if only a Democratic President was elected to work with the Democratic Congress. But last week, as the various virtuosos of the U.S. Senate began the tune-up for the 87th Congress, the discord sounded hauntingly familiar.

As he did before the last session, Pennsylvania's Liberal Senator Joe Clark shot off letters to Republicans and Democrats alike, urging them as the first order of business to think about his oft-proposed changes in Senate rules and procedures. One prime goal: to get a softening of the famous Rule 22, which requires a two-thirds vote of all Senate members to cut off filibusters. Other Clark proposals would speed the legislative processes and undercut the traditional power of seniority (which gives the South a death grip on committee chairmanships). Clark's newest proposal was to fill Democratic leadership positions with Senators from the big industrial states, on the reasoning that it was these states that gave Kennedy his victory. "We must not," said he, "approve the designation [to key committee positions] of members who have failed to support the national ticket or those who oppose the platform pledges in the area in which the committee has jurisdiction.''

Hardly had these letters been received when Florida's Senator Spessard Holland boasted pointedly that the South will be even stronger than before in the coming session. "There is no fight in sight between parties," said Holland. "It will be a fight between conservatives and liberals from now on . . . I expect there'll be a lot of help from conservatives on the Republican side of the aisle." Southerners seconding Holland pointed out that, industrial states or no, Kennedy would have lost without solid Southern support.

In Manhattan. Connecticut Democrat Tom Dodd issued his own statement of principle: he was not about to go "whole hog'' on the Democratic platform, "merely because it was adopted by our party convention . . . Any attempt of a party convention to dictate to a President or a Congress concerning constitutional responsibilities cannot be countenanced."

Well before the inaugural overture, the U.S. Congress (which convenes 17 days before inauguration) might well be tootling along in its own jam session, reworking that ancient cowboy tune. Don't Fence Me In.

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