Man of Confidence

OKLAHOMA'S

A year ago, the beefy senior Senator from Oklahoma told John Kennedy that he would fight the President all the way on the Administration's medicare bill. Last week, good as his word, Democrat Robert Samuel Kerr, 65, paid off on his promise. No man to tangle with, Kerr buttonholed just enough of his Democratic colleagues, and with a forceful eloquence turned them in his direction. Kerr, co-author of the Kerr-Mills medicare bill, was out-and-out against any other legislation that would undercut his own, and furthermore, was dead set against any new bill that was hinged to social security.

Oil & Bread. Kerr's tremendous influence in the Senate is the sum of many factors, not the least of which is his utter self-confidence. This in turn is nourished by the fact that he is the wealthiest man in the Senate. An oilman (Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Inc.), he has a personal fortune of more than $35 million and owns or controls, through Kerr-McGee, about 25% of all known uranium reserves in the U.S.

When he was first elected to the Senate in 1948, he was a strong Truman supporter, and during the Eisenhower Administration just as strongly against Ike. But basically, his politics are neither right nor left but as bouncy as a pingpong ball. His heart pings mightily when it comes to preserving the 27 1/2% oil depletion allowance, so dear to the pocketbooks of oilmen, and it ponged in support of the President's campaign to retain foreign aid to Poland and Yugoslavia. But he has crossed Jack Kennedy 6ften in recent months, and in fact, has voted pro-Kennedy only 59% of the time. Still, some people regard him as an easy-money, easy-credit Democrat.

Proud of the fact that he was born in a log cabin in the Indian Territory, Kerr likes to recall that he set a big goal early in life: he wanted a family, a million dollars and the governorship --in that order. He succeeded--in that order. He was an attorney in 1926 when he hooked up with a drilling firm, soon afterward was devoting himself to some high-style and successful oil exploration. His move into politics was equally successful, and so was his one term (in 1942) as Governor of Oklahoma.

Mares & Medicare. Moving his rig into the Senate, Kerr quickly struck a gusher as a man who could talk at any length on any subject. He also had, briefly, even higher ambitions. In 1952 Kerr started a drive for the Democratic Presidential nomination, lasted through one roll call at the convention. "It would appear," he said later, "that the people did not realize what a superior product was being offered them." Mainly, he is noted in the Senate for his pungent rhetoric. For years he has sparred with Illinois' doughty Democrat Paul Douglas. In 1958, as Protectionist Kerr was reading into the Congressional Record a list of industries whose tariffs he felt were detrimental to Oklahoma's welfare, Douglas rose to ask whether the Pregnant Mares' Urine Association was on the list. Replied Kerr: "No, but I know that the Senator from Illinois, being an authority on it, would be glad to inform the Senate about it--not that I think the Senator from Illinois would be an exhibit."

Once, in a debate on finance, Kerr claimed that "no man can help Eisenhower study the fiscal policies of this Government, because one cannot do that without brains and he does not have them." When Indiana's Republican Homer Capehart protested this partisan rhetoric, Kerr affably amended his comment to read that Ike had " 'no fiscal brains.' I do not say that the President has no brains at all. I reserve that broad and sweeping accusation for some of my cherished colleagues."

Church & Cattle. Notwithstanding his sharp tongue, Kerr puts out a lot of warmth. He is a devoted family man (four children, eleven grandchildren), teaches Sunday school at Washington's First Baptist Church, donates 30% of his income to his church, neither smokes nor drinks. His warmth, when he wants to turn it on, is so much a part of his impressive capacity for persuasion that President Kennedy is not about to hold Kerr's role in the defeat of medicare against him. The President, in fact, is looking to Kerr to help prepare the way for passage of the Administration's tax bill and foreign trade legislation. Bob Kerr may just do that, for at bottom he admires Kennedy. Last November, when the President visited Kerr's ranch, the Oklahoman bellowed to one of the hired hands: "Bring these cattle through the runway and let them see the greatest President in the world!"

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