The Problems of Being Bobby

Riding home through rain-soaked Washington in his Justice Department limousine one evening last week, Attorney General Robert Kennedy turned to a companion, said matter-of-factly: "I don't think there is much future for me in this city now."

Bobby's future had come to be the second most talked-about subject in the Democratic Party. When Lyndon Johnson had called him to the White House five days before and told him that he was not the answer to the party's No. 1 question--Who will run for Vice President?--Johnson had mentioned several possible assuagers: a Cabinet post or a foreign service assignment, for example. Bobby replied that he did not want any of them. The President said: "I think I know what you want. You want to lead the country some day." Where upon Lyndon gave the Attorney General a fatherly little talk about the mer its of running for elective office, promised to give him all the help he could if Bobby decided to enter a race. That was all very well, but the trouble was that Kennedy did not want to talk of the presidency when he had just been dealt out of the vice-presidential game.

Bobby now shows signs of taking it all philosophically. "I must confess I stand in awe of you," he told a meeting of Democratic congressional candidates, who were aware that Lyndon had barred all Cabinet-level officials from the vice-presidential nomination. "You are not members of the Cabinet, and you don't meet regularly with the Cabinet, and therefore you are eligible for Vice President." After he got the word from the President, added Bobby, "I decided to send a little note to Cabinet members in general, saying, 'I'm sorry I took so many nice fellows over the side with me.' "

It could be that Bobby was picking up a few pointers for himself at the candidates' school. There was a whole new wave of speculation that he would run for the U.S. Senate in New York for the seat now held by Republican Kenneth Keating. Earlier, he had said he would not run for that office, amid talk that too many New Yorkers would consider him a carpetbagger from Massachusetts. Now he seemed to be reconsidering. At week's end, without any fanfare, he met privately for an hour in Manhattan with New York City's Mayor Robert Wagner, who is not particularly anxious to see Bobby make the race. After the meeting, Kennedy left as silently as he had arrived, and went away for a few more days of thought.

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