Evening star., 1947-12-06
Some Party Rebels
Get Great BuiId-Up
As Phony Liberals
They Serve q Purpose
But Create Danger
Of Legislative Chaos
Bv Frank r. Kent

Of Legislative Chaos
By Frank r. Kent
It always has been true in poll
tics that one of the surest ways
to get that personal publicity for
which most men In public Office
yearn and without which many
@ither and fade is to make oneself
a nuisance to the majority Of ones
own party.
Evidences of this basic political
fact are unusually plentiful at this
time among the Republicans in the
Senate, where their party has a
very slender margin of control and
q few defections may reduce it to
futility. This is the type of situa-
ton which offers the richest re-
wards in newspaper notices to
those with a tendency to buck the
party leadership and it is not sur
prising the number of such Sem
ators has increased since the last
session. Most parties have them
Undoubtedly some are men of
conviction and character but by no
means all of them. Quite few
are largely motivated by the itch
for favorable publicity and know
nc other way to acquire 1t. Once
they break away from the leader
ship they are there.
In the first place, the break is
news. Where the margin is so
small, any indication of split ma
turally is Of public interest. Under
existing circumstances, one rebels
voice carries a lot farther than
that Of 20 regulars. And the So
called rebel is always more articu-
late. Naturally, the reporters leap
to get his side and play him up.
Phony Liberals" Built Up.
No matter how wrong he may
be nor how cheap he is, the rebel
really makes news. In consequence,
he reaps the publicity benefits. In
the second place, he especially ap-
peals to the left wing--New Deal
columnist and commentators Of
the Roosevelt regime who have be-
come incurable professional lib
erals and whose disposition is to
rush up on the roof and cheer any
one who seems to 90 in the old New
Deal direction. Particularly is this
true If he opposes reduction in gov
ernmental costs and advocates the
general economic and social pro-
gram of the CIO propagandists.
As a result of this attitude upon
the part of considerable number Of
publicists and the eagerness with
which some Of the so-called rebel
Senators lend themselves to it, a
number of what seem to be ridicu-
lously phony liberals" are being
built up.
All a Republican Senator has to
do to gain the support of the left
wing journalists is to vote few
times against cutting appropriations
and in favor OF CIO proposals. He
then will find himself gratifyingly
alluded to in the press as "able,
"clear-h ca led" hitting,
Fortnight" "broad-minded," in
dependent" thoughtful" or by
other stock terms of a laudatory
nature. Also, inevitably he will be
called a Humanitarian" and con-
trasted with the "reactionary,"
"hard- boiled" 'narrow-m n e d.
selfish" penny -pinching Tories" :"
who want to go back to "the Hard
ing days" and return the American
workman to slavery"
Whole Game Transparent.
The whole game is SO transparent
that it is amazing more people do
not see through it. An Illuminating
story is being told of how one
Senator came to be a, great liberal" j"
Coming from a conservative State,
until about year ago 1t had been
the invariable habit of this Senator
to vote with his older and generally
conservative colleague. One day an
amendment came up upon which his
colleague had voted and then left
the chamber. The Senator wanted to
vote with his colleague but got con-
fused and voted exactly the other
way.
When he found it out it was toe
late to change. He felt rather badly
about 1t until the next morning
when he found himself played up in
the press as a liberal" commended
for his independence, courage and
enlightenment.
This was a great surprise to him
1t was the first favorable publicity
he had ever had and 1t certainly did
things to him. The next time he
had a chance he again voted against
his colleague and again was delugeo
with praise by some of our most
eminent journalistic observers. Now
he regularly waits until he finds how
his colleague is voting and then votes
against him.
The result is he has become sort
Of liberal hero. He has had maya
zine articles written about him and
talks the liberal patter as fuently
as any. Probably this is not exactly
true story, but it Is not very fa1
off the track.
To repeat, none of this means
there are not among the alleged
rebels some sincere men. Nor does
1t mean that even phony rebellions
of this type do not often serve a
useful purpose. They keep the party
leaders from becoming too SNUG and
going too far. They discourage abuse
of power. They compel compromises
that may be in the national interests
They may force action along progres-
sive lines.
On the other hand, if the rebellion
Is manned by publicity seeking
demagogues and promoted by ex-
tremists, it might bring about legis-
lative chaos, destroy all party po-
tency and do great deal Of damage
to the country.