By historic coincidence, the Republican Senate leadership fell open the same week as the Democratic. Death came to Charles Linza McNary, 69, the slender, urbane Oregonian who adroitly steered his Party's Senate minority through the grueling first eleven years of the New Deal.
In-"Charley Mac," Republicans had a tactician who knew when to hold his pack, in order to let the Democrats knock each other out. The Democrats usually obliged, after the 1937 Supreme Court crisis. Others could make windmill orations or pass pious resolutions. Charley, imperturbable in his inevitable polka-dotted bow tie,...