Poi & Politics

New York Republican Nelson Rockefeller tucked a frangipani blossom behind his ear and finger-dipped poi and lomi-lomi salmon. California Democrat Pat Brown hoisted his considerable self onto a surfboard and got spectacularly dunked in the blue Pacific. North Carolina Democrat Terry Sanford rode water skis, Massachusetts Republican John Volpe wiggled a hula, Idaho Republican Robert Smylie and Hawaii Republican William Quinn paddled an outrigger canoe. It was the 53rd Governors' Conference, and the 31 Democrats and 16 Republicans who showed up in Honolulu last week leaned heavily to sun and fun.

But along with the poi came some politicking. The conference chairmanship traditionally rotates between parties, and this time a Republican was due to succeed outgoing Democrat Stephen McNichols of Colorado. Democratic National Chairman John Bailey, on hand for the frolic, passed word that neither of the top contenders, Rockefeller and Oregon's Mark Hatfield, should be considered. Bailey's reasoning: both Rockefeller and Hatfield are possibilities for places on the 1964 Republican national ticket, and Bailey did not want to give either of them any added shine. Democrats instead backed New Hampshire Republican Wesley Powell, who is no national threat to anyone.

Irked by the Democratic maneuver, Rocky and Hatfield did some maneuvering of their own. In hopes of publicly splitting the Democratic ranks, they unveiled a resolution calling on all the Governors to exercise leadership at home in securing civil rights. Southern Democrats reacted predictably. Alabama's John Patterson (TIME cover, June 2) came out of the surf to write a 20-page protest. Mississippi's Ross Barnett threatened to take off his aloha shirt and go home.

Then the G.O.P. had some sober second thoughts. To Honolulu as presidential representative had flown Lyndon Johnson. The Vice President, describing Berlin as the most serious challenge "on the darkened world scene," called on both parties to unite behind President Kennedy's foreign policy, "especially when our Communist adversary is strong, united, disciplined and on the march." For the sake of world opinion, the Republicans joined in a unanimous vote of support for the President's Berlin policy. In the same spirit, they dropped their plan to embarrass Democrats further over civil rights. "We had a choice," explained one, "between voting for our resolution and bleeding before the world all over again on this question by giving international headlines to Barnett and Patterson." The G.O.P. went along with a mushy compromise calling vaguely for leadership in "protecting American principles." Everybody could vote for that. Everybody did. Then everybody went swimming in a clear, cool Hawaiian lagoon.

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