CAPITAL NOTES

Clear It with Lyndon

Vice President Lyndon Johnson has served notice on White House patronage bosses that he still intends to pass on federal appointments in Texas. Johnson's ukase does not sit too well with Texas' senior Senator, Ralph Yarborough, but he can only grumble mildly.

Knuckle Rubber

News pictures almost invariably show President Kennedy with his hands stuffed into his side pockets.

Contrary to some beliefs, he does not finger any lucky charms in his pocket, but merely imprisons his hands to keep from giving in to nervous habits. Kennedy is a knuckle rubber (fourth finger, left hand), forelock brusher, tie-knot shifter and teeth tapper.

Sharp Cut

The President got a big laugh at his press conference when he said that a recent muscle-flexing interview given by Admiral Arleigh Burke had been given before inauguration day, and thus predated the Kennedy directive requiring such comments to be cleared by the White House. "This," said Kennedy, "makes me happier than ever that such a directive has gone out." To some Washington hands, the crack grated as a needless rasp for the Navy's capable chief, who was a distinguished combat commander when Jack Kennedy was learning to run PT boats.

Double Feature

After working like a dirt farmer for days and nights, exhausted Orville Freeman left off from his new chores at the Agriculture Department and went to the movies. Moments after he sat down, the man behind him tapped Freeman on the shoulder. "This," said the President of the U.S. with a grin, "is a hell of a way to write a farm program."

Naval Blockade

The new Strategic Target Planning board, which is responsible for assigning hot war targets to the various services according to capability, is under heavy fire from a diehard Navy clique in the Pentagon. Reason: the director of the targeting board is an Air Force officer, SAC General Thomas Power, who, to the diehards' way of thinking, ought not to have much to say about the war missions of the Navy's cherished Polaris missile submarines. The Navy critics are not mollified by the fact that a vice admiral is Power's deputy.

McDynamo

The member of the new White House family who is getting the biggest buildup by colleagues as the Administration's "strongman" is McGeorge Bundy, 41, Kennedy's special assistant on national security affairs. Yaleman Bundy earned his reputation as a dynamo at Harvard, where he became dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at 34, and, soon afterward, a force on university administration councils. Kennedy is well aware of Bundy's growing prestige and says with a chuckle: "I think I'll continue to have residual functions."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.