Roses with a Touch of Ragweed

By Hugh Sidey

These are days of wine and roses for Republicans. But even in the elegant parlors of the party stalwarts, the flavor is often more of vinegar and ragweed.

They see a chance to seriously challenge Jimmy Carter in 1980. But Ronald Reagan sits astride the G.O.P. apparatus. "Can you imagine what it is going to be like?" sighed one of the young bucks recently. "Our candidate will be 70 years old with orange hair and a face lift." The most popular contender in the party is Gerald Ford. "There he was," reported the same Republican, "in his white leisure suit beside the pool in Palm Springs. How do you lead this nation from the fairways of Thunderbird?"

The active Republicans see so much good second-and third-level talent that their delight soon dissolves into worry that these able politicians will devour each other or refuse to join such a melee. To add to their misery, the Republicans hear their favorite political scripture about balanced budgets, the Soviet menace and Big Government being preached from Democratic pulpits.

Yet the G.O.P. blood is rising. There are now four clearly defined categories of candidates or potentials. Oldies--Reagan, Ford. Old newies--Connally. New oldies--Richardson, Bush, Baker, Brock, Percy, Dole, Ray, Mathias, Ruckelshaus. Newies--Borman, Kemp, Heinz, Du Pont, Thompson.

From the Union League Club to the rural women's caucuses, when two or more Republicans collide they produce the name of a presidential contender--or two or three. Some are valid, some ridiculous. But what a lovely sport.

Around a candlelit table on Washington's Prospect Street one night not long ago, Bill Ruckelshaus, the former Deputy Attorney General, now senior vice president of Weyerhaeuser Co., gathered with old friends. Eyes shone bright. Could he, would he? No, no, he protested. But there might have been a waver in his voice.

In Manhattan this week, heavy moneymen and big sports figures are gathering at a secret dinner for Quarterback turned Congressman Jack Kemp. His four-minute segment about taxes on Cronkite's show last Wednesday jiggled hearts as far away as Illinois. "Charismatic," said a middle-aged elephant. Participants in the Republican Tidewater Conference in Easton, Md., say there was a Kennedy-like stir when Kemp strode in.

Bryce Harlow, former White House aide and the genial survivor of every G.O.P. disaster (and triumph) since Eisenhower, was accosted on his way to lunch by a man who, in tones usually reserved for palace coups, expounded the virtues of NATO'S General Alexander Haig, former White House aide who held things together in the last days of Watergate. Almost every day, former Secretary of the Treasury Bill Simon gets letters offering, indeed pleading, to help finance a Simon candidacy. In Iowa, Governor Robert Ray stands at a staggering 82% approval with his electorate--and he balances the budget. Reporters press him with the big question. No, he says, he likes Iowa.

There is regional fervor for Big Jim Thompson of Illinois. Meantime, the first fellow who could be called a real live advanceman hove into Chicago a short while ago. He was up from Houston pushing the candidacy of George Bush, the former Republican Committee chief and CIA director. There is an underground system of communication on behalf of Frank Borman, former astronaut who now heads Eastern Air Lines. Biographies, assessments of Borman's leadership at Eastern, critiques of him as TV pitchman for the airline are zooming back and forth among a tiny but expanding fan club.

There is cautious hope now of major Republican gains in Congress and the state capitals this fall. Yet it is the longer view that holds promise. Men like National Committee Chairman Bill Brock see in the shifting national concerns the chance to weld a "power pack" of young executives, farmers, small businessmen, skilled and semiskilled workers, secretaries, housewives, doctors and lawyers. To hold it together, they will need a special person. Their search is earnest now. That is why all the wine and roses.

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