Trouble in Four Syllables

THE PRESIDENCY

Lyndon Johnson could hardly deny that his relations with a number of congressional Democrats were, to put it mildly, strained. Last week the White House came up with a four-syllable, all-purpose word for the troublemakers.

To reports that L.B.J. had snubbed Indiana Senator Vance Hartke, Bill Moyers replied: "The President does not cease dealing with a Senator because he is obstreperous." Asked if Abba Schwartz, a veteran State Department official, had been forced to resign, Moyers blamed "obstreperous members of Congress" for rumormongering.

The President was plainly annoyed by the fuss over his failure to meet with Hartke, a onetime protege, and a delegation of 200 fellow Indianans. After all, it was 8 a.m. when the touring Hoosiers arrived at the White House, and the President's attention was already occupied by developments in Viet Nam. Hartke's presence, the White House insisted, had nothing to do with Johnson's inability to make the scene.

That was probably as well for all concerned. Hartke first incurred Johnson's anger last year when he dared oppose a presidential appointment. It was Hartke who drafted the letter signed in January by 15 Senators protesting U.S. resumption of the bombing of North Viet Nam. Last week the Senator again ired L.B.J. by trying to block the Administration's proposal to boost telephone taxes.

As for Schwartz, the President was unmistakably concerned lest the resignation further alienate the party's liberal wing, already unhappy with Johnson's Viet Nam policy. As administrator of the Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs, Schwartz had worked for a relaxation of curbs on immigration, travel and the admission of refugees. He quit, he said, after learning that he was the intended victim of a planned State Department reorganization eliminating his 17-man bureau. Actually, it was no secret that certain department officials had vigorously opposed Schwartz, particularly on his liberal visa policy for foreigners visiting the U.S. To the Administration's discomfiture, Democrats Robert Kennedy in the Senate and Henry S. Reuss in the House both called for public hearings, which promise more obstreperousness.

For nonobstreperous relief, the President conferred at week's end with a bipartisan delegation of 38 state Governors. In exuberant vein, Johnson hymned his concept of "creative federalism," pointing out, not exactly in passing, that his Administration is giving ever-heftier federal aid to the states. The session ended with a unanimous resolution by the Governors attesting that they "wholeheartedly support and endorse" U.S. policy in Viet Nam. The resolution was proposed by Ohio's Republican Governor James Rhodes and seconded by New York's Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

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