Kicking the Tiger's Teeth

In the rosy afterglow of Jack Kennedy's 400,000-vote landslide in New York, the state's bread-and-butter Democratic bosses confidently presumed that they would get their just desserts. But by last week it was clear that they were getting the back of Kennedy's hand. His victory, Kennedy figured, underscored New York's latent Democratic strength, emphasized the party's weakness in failing to win recent statewide elections. And the Kennedy forces have a vital stake in repairing that weakness: they want to cut Governor Nelson Rockefeller down to size when he comes up for re-election in 1962.

"If we can do this," said one top New York Kennedy man, "we will weaken Rockefeller's presidential chances in '64." But if the party is torn asunder for two or three more years, we might very well lose the state--and the election--in '64.''

Promised Purge. New York's Democratic Party has been torn asunder since the state convention of 1958. Principal ripper was National Committeeman Carmine Gerard De Sapio, the dark-spectacled Tammany Hall sachem who outraged most fellow Democrats and voters by dictating the selection of the party's candidate for the U.S. Senate race, New York County District Attorney Frank Hogan. After Hogan and other Democrats were clobbered, bands of anti-De Sapio reformers in New York City clustered around aging Eleanor Roosevelt, former Governor Herbert Lehman, and former Air Force Secretary Thomas Fin-letter (who had been done out of the senatorial nomination by De Sapio). They came within an ace of defeating De Sapio for the leadership of his home district in Greenwich Village, and they upended several De Sapio candidates in last year's primaries. They had Jack Kennedy's ear from the start, because Kennedy sorely wanted (and ultimately got) Stevenson-minded Eleanor Roosevelt's endorsement.

Within weeks after the election, word went out from the Kennedys that De Sapio & Co. must go. To take the teeth out of the Tammany tiger, the Kennedys cut off De Sapio's federal patronage. Run-of-the-mill jobs are now being dispensed through Congressman Eugene Keogh of Brooklyn and Charles Buckley, boss of The Bronx, while applicants for higher jobs must call upon Bobby Kennedy or Brother-in-Law Sargent Shriver. The Washington tactics produced the desired results. New York's Mayor Robert Wagner pushed Old Friend De Sapio to arm's length, last week huddled with Reformer Lehman, gave word that he would strive to purge De Sapio.

The reformers' timetable goes like this:

P: Bounce fumbling State Chairman Michael Prendergast, replace him and De Sapio with men acceptable to the reformers. (Prendergast had incurred Kennedy's fury during the campaign by publicly snubbing Lehman and Mrs. Roosevelt as they sat on a platform with Kennedy at a massive rally. Recalls a Kennedy aide: "Jack apologized to them on the spot. Unfortunately, Mrs. Roosevelt's hearing aid was turned off at the time. But Lehman explained to her later.")

P: Pick a tough, independent deputy mayor who would scour up the 20-odd headlined scandals that have tarnished Wagner's purchasing department, police department, etc. Already approached for the job: able City Planning Commission Chairman James Felt, who likes the idea.

P: Dump City Council President Abe Stark, a kindly but ineffectual Brooklyn haberdasher whose main claims to fame are that he 1) sold suits to De Sapio ($75 to $90), and 2) gave a free set of duds to every ballplayer who hit his advertising billboard in the old Ebbets Field. To replace Stark, nominate the clean-up-minded deputy mayor--Felt.

P: That done, Wagner could make the race for re-election this year, with Felt as his running mate and reform support, and probably win. The plan calls for him to step down soon after, leaving his job to Felt and plucking for himself a ripe Kennedy ambassadorship (rumored: Ireland or Israel) or a new Cabinet post (rumored: Secretary of Urban Redevelopment). As a leading reform Democratic officeholder said: "Wagner is neither a strong man nor a decisive person. A federal appointment is logical for him."

Tarnished Knight. The big question was whom to choose to lose to Rockefeller in 1962. (The most hopeful Democrats doubt that Rocky's lead can be cut below 250,000.) Front-running candidate was Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.--if he could ever live down his reputation as 1) a Stork Club playboy, 2) a lackluster candidate who lost by 173,000 votes when he ran for state attorney general in 1954, and 3) a lawyer who once accepted a fee from Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo.

To shine up Roosevelt, Kennedy has discussed naming him to an eye-catching assistant secretaryship or a place on the Civil Rights Commission. "F.D.R. Jr. is a highly debatable white knight to try to send in," mutters one top Kennedy man. "But he is ambitious and willing."

While the tigers of Tammany battled with the lions of reform, Republicans watched the spectacle with unmitigated glee. Said Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater to a Washington audience: "In a savage civil war now raging in New York State between the forces of Carmine De Sapio and the agrarian reformers of Eleanor Roosevelt, our party believes that it is in America's best interest to remain neutral. We entreat you, therefore, Mr. Kennedy, not to lend-lease or supply either side with enough arms or patronage for a decisive victory either way. If this fight can be kept going through 1962, we can re-elect Nelson Rockefeller as Governor without much difficulty."

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