The Lincoln Takeover

The New Frontier may seem timid at times in foreign relations, but on the domestic scene it can be jokingly aggressive--as it showed in the steel-price battle, the Battle of Mississippi, and several other feats of political jujitsu. Last week the Administration even tried to take Abraham Lincoln away from the Republican Party.

Choice of Punches. On Lincoln's Birthday, traditionally an occasion for Republican speechmaking, President Kennedy held the center of the stage with an 800-guest White House reception and buffet dinner to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. "Hypocritical," cried the upstaged Republican National Committee. Among the President's guests: Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the N.A.A.C.P., John Johnson, publisher of Ebony, and, of course, the most prominent Negro members of the Administration--Robert C. Weaver, head of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, and Carl Rowan, Ambassador-designate to Finland. Menu: shrimp Creole, curried chicken, ham, turkey, and two kinds of punch, not counting the political kind.

Somewhat obscured by the competition, the Republicans held their Lincoln Day gatherings to honor the party's first winning presidential candidate. Much of what the speakers said was as predictable as what Democrats say at Jefferson-Jackson dinners. At Springfield, Ill., the voice of Senate Minority Leader Everett McKinley Dirksen summoned the party to "plow the long, hard furrow through which the Republican Party came to power and saved the Union in grave hours." Republican National Chairman William Miller thundered that the G.O.P. "must win in '64, or there won't be a country worth saving in '68." Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater and numerous other speakers lambasted the Kennedy record on Cuba. New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller charged that the Administration had "abdicated virtually all leadership toward achieving necessary civil rights legislation."

Search for Ideas. But also evident in the Republican speechmaking was a recurrent recognition that, vulnerable as the New Frontier's record is, the Republican Party has to offer the nation something more positive than denunciation. Speaking in Boston, Kentucky's Senator John Sherman Cooper told his Republican audience that the Democratic Party had won its majority position "because it is a lively party . . . because it gives the idea of change and progress," and he urged the Republicans to strive for a consensus "upon the fundamental purposes and interests of our party." New York's Senator Jacob Javits called upon the G.O.P. to work out "positive programs" and "long-range plans" to put before the nation. Oregon's Governor Mark Hatfield declared that the Republican Party "must offer a youthful, new-idea approach . . . must look to the future, with emphasis on ingenuity."

The Republican Party, it seemed on Lincoln's Birthday, is in a state of philosophical flux, searching for updated ideas and remodeled programs. The politics of 1964 may largely depend upon the results of that search.

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