One Was Right

Within 30 minutes after Kentucky's polls had closed. Republican headquarters in Louisville's Henry Clay Hotel was a scene of pageant. Dwight Eisenhower, according to the bellwether returns, had won Kentucky. Republican John Sherman Cooper, who had left his post as U.S.

Ambassador to India at Ike's urging to run for the Senate against Democratic ex-Governor Lawrence Wetherby, was already accepting congratulations. But distinctly apart from the jubilation, hunched worriedly over a news ticker, was a tall man in a charcoal grey suit: Republican Thruston Morton, former assistant secretary of state (in charge of congressional relations), who was running for Kentucky's other Senate seat against tough old Incumbent Earle Clements (TIME, Feb. 27 et. seq. ). Shortly before 6 p.m., Thruston (pronounced Threwston) Morton turned from the wire machine and said wearily: "I'm licked."

Through the night, with Winner Cooper helping him figure the returns, Morton kept shaking his tousled head in despair. Because he felt that Ike was depending on him to help carry the Senate for the Republicans, he was doubly agonized. It was almost with a sense of relief that Thruston Morton learned from the nationwide returns early Wednesday morning that the Democrats would control the Senate regardless of what happened to him. "The Big Man," he sighed, "won't think I was the one who lost the Senate."

But Thruston Morton was not, in fact, licked. Kentucky's Democratic Governor "Happy" Chandler, disliking Adlai Stevenson and feuding with both Wetherby and Clements, had cut into the Democratic national ticket unmercifully. Inch by inch, Morton moved ahead. Long before Thruston Morton quit wringing his hands and drowning his sorrow in black coffee, Old Pro Clements had seen what was happening. He called long distance to a Democratic Senate colleague and issued a terse report: "I'm licked." Clements, not Morton, was right. Clements lost by more than 7,000 votes.

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