Evening star., 1948-03-18

uted. portrait OF mythical buff
comic
There have been complaints that
a slur on the dignity of the United
States Senate by presenting its ri !
diculous central figure as a member
of that august body. There hardly |
seems any solid basis for this quib-
bling, though. The script, as a mat
ter of fact, is careful to point out |
that Senator Melvin G. Ashton Is
not representative of his abler COL
leagues. Washingtonians of more
than a few years standing, more
over, will find Mr.. Powell's Senator
Ashton a not entirely unfamiliar
type.
Sensitive politicians, Of course,
may resent the comedy's implication
that all of politics Is not honorable
and honest and that some political
deals may have been made in the
past, the facts Of which, to avoid
embarrassment, might better be kept
from the public eye. If the time has
come, however, when fun can't be
made of professional politicians, a
sad time has come indeed.
Senator Ashton is a verbose and
pompous politico, but not really an
unlikable one His only actual fault
Is the combination of rather
complete stupidity with childlike
failure to realize that he has any
shortcomings at all as public
servant. He is a man not seeking
the presidential nomination OF his
party, one of those 81 am not a
candidate, but ." fellows
His headlong drive toward the
White House is not even tempo
rarily interrupted when the irate
boss OF The Party tells him the
organization which has fed and
clothed him all these years has
other plans. The Senator has q
diary, in which he has set down
the intimate details Of The Party's
dealings during the three decades.
The Senator has no more trouble
with The Party, until the diary
turns out to be missing.
The loss Of this dangerous docu-
ment and its recovery provide only
a sketchy ordnance map for the
Messrs. kaufman and Macarthur,
but their aim Is sure when they
level their guns on politics and
politicians.
Campaign promises take a beating
when Senator Ashton makes a
whirlwind speaking tour across the
country. He you-alls his way
through Virginia; podners his way
across Texas; pauses somewhere to
promise an immediate bonus (cash)
for every one who did not go to
war; lets Californians know he Is
against imitation, against defation,
but for flation. He winds up at a
Madison Square Garden rally,
where he lets the people know that
his election to the presidency
would mean, among other things,
that the Government would send
every American boy and girl
through Harvard; would pay every
American 5000 week from date of
birth to date Of death; would re-
peal social security. but pay back
every American at the age Of As
all the money he ever paid in
income taxes.
The Aim gives the phenomenon
OF the American political machine
quite a pasting around, too, espe-
cially in those moments when the
Senator's diary turns out to be
somewhere at large. The feature
of the pandemonium that breaks
loose then is a man who sits pa
tiently at the phone, briefing
Honest Johns" from coast to coast
on the departure times of planes
bound for countries with which the
United States does not have extra
dition treaties.
,Inept public servants also are
Kaufman-MacArthur targets, most
effectively when the machine" is
trying to find a suitable job for
Senator Ashton, so he will resign
and save The Party's face. There
is no other line Of work for which
he is fitted, 1t seems, except being
q senator. There is one thing he
could do, he admits at long last.
What's that? the boss wants to
know. Be president, the senator
says brightly.
All this, of course. Is no truer
a picture Of American political life
than would be a picture which pre-
sented it as completely lacking in
dishonesty, graft, treachery and
patronage. 1t is for the most part
a comic picture, though, sometimes
subtle, sometimes rough and some
times out-and-out slapstick. It's
the sort of thing that can hurt only
the vulnerable. |
As far as acting goes, THE
Senator Was Indiscreet," Is Mr..
Powell's picture. His Senator Ash
ton Is the outlandish central char
acter in the farce, the. one against
whom the actions and reactions of
the others operate. It is a fine role
for him and for his admirers There
is no place for that cuteness that
assailed some Of his later drawing
comedies. but his sense of timing
and a sense for blowing up balloon