Driving Home a Point

For a 60-sec. TV spot, the Republican National Committee asked a New York City agency for a model who was "big and burly" and "personified Democratic politicians of the postwar era." The agency gave the assignment to Ed Steffe, 72, a character actor and self-described Wendell Willkie Republican from Manhattan. In the commercial, which was previewed in Washington last week, Steffe, wearing a white wig and identified as a Congressman, sits behind the wheel of a long, black Lincoln Continental with registration plates marked DEMOCRAT. As the car sputters to a stop, an announcer declares: "The Democrats are out of gas. We need some new ideas. Vote Republican--for a change." No one is laughing harder than Steffe's jowly, white-maned, thoroughly Democratic look-alike--House Speaker Tip O'Neill. Allowed O'Neill: "I'm a far more handsome man."

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