National Affairs: Blood on the Boutonniere

Announcing last week for the Senate seat held by aging (77) New Jersey Republican H. Alexander Smith: redhaired, boutonniered Bernard Michael Shanley, 54, who resigned as President Eisenhower’s Appointments Secretary to go home and run. Shanley’s plan infuriated New Jersey Republicans, who knew that Alex Smith was anxious to retire after 2½ terms, hoped to select his successor without a bloodletting primary. Irritating them also was Shanley’s lightweight claim to political fame. In four years at the White House, the onetime Stassen-for-President strategist has tried to influence patronage, has riled Smith and Senator .Clifford Case by interfering with their federal appointments. His announcement virtually guaranteed that New Jersey’s fractured Republican Party will pull itself together to clobber him.