Education of a Senator

A Senator booted out of office by the fickle electorate usually vanishes from the public eye like a golf ball driven into the rough. But the brassie of public displeasure had a different effect on Illinois' Scott Lucas, the former Democratic floor leader, and Pennsylvania's Francis Myers, the former Democratic whip. Last week they were right back in the capital again--this time as 1) lobbyists, and 2) critics of the Administration.

When they appeared as witnesses before the House Banking & Currency Committee last week, both lifted their hands in consternation at Regulation W, the section of the Defense Production Act of 1950 limiting credit buying, for which both joyfully voted.

Lucas--who now represents U.S. automobile finance dealers--cried that it was "unconscionable and inequitable." Myers is now a Washington representative for an outfit called the National Foundation for Consumer Credit. He is wiser now. he said. "A Senator is against inflation and somebody hands him something like Regulation W, and he hasn't much time and he's told it's against inflation so he accepts it ... People should be educated as this Senator--after study, thought and consideration--was. The fact is," he added righteously, "Regulation W is highly inflationary . . ."

Their onetime archenemy, Ohio's G.O.P. Senator John W. Bricker, could hardly contain himself on hearing their new line. "That," he kept repeating triumphantly, "was the argument I used three years ago when this bill came up!"

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