Cooling the Convention

Party politics, as Disraeli defined the term in 1864, is "organized opinion." It can also be the opposite, as U.S. Republicans demonstrated at their national convention 100 years later, when an open free-for-all over the party platform irreconcilably widened the breach between the G.O.P.'s moderate and Goldwater factions. To avoid another schism in 1968, when they will need all the unity they can muster, some Republicans suggest holding an informal platform-drafting convention a year earlier, when the atmosphere should be more conducive to deliberation.*

The authorship of the plan portends harmony. Its sponsors are Michigan's Governor George Romney, a probable candidate for the presidential nomination, and Wisconsin's Representative Melvin Laird who as platform-committee chairman in 1964 tried to bring everybody together but drew fire from both sides. They propose that the several hundred participants in the pre-convention--most of them party leaders who would also be delegates to the regular convention the next year--first choose a drafting committee and then act on the committee's platform.

To be practicable, the Romney-Laird idea needs the advance blessing of all major candidates for the presidential nomination. They would consequently be committed to the useful notion that the party is bigger than the man, which in itself could help damp down some of the G.O.P.'s intraparty differences. More important for the party's immediate prospects, Romney has already told Laird he would make that commitment. Though condemned by many party regulars as a loner and an opportunist who has used the G.O.P. but has no true allegiance to it, Romney has thus indicated his willingness to contend for the nomination from within the fold. Also, he has promised to go all out to elect Robert Griffin, the Republican candidate for Senator from Michigan.

If Griffin wins, said Laird, "there's no doubt in my mind that Romney will be our 1968 nominee."

* The Democrats, foreseeing no such problems, also are considering a convention innovation. They may try to sell television-coverage rights to the highest-bidding network, with a likely price of $2,000,000.

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