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Republican Goldwater's bitter words jolted the White House even though he had sent a copy of the speech to the President in advance, with a letter expressing regret that he had to make it. But pressed for his reaction to the speech, Ike calmly told his press conference (see below) that differences of opinion are part of the American political system, and then he added his point that the U.S. cannot turn back to 1890. Best translation: Ike intends to stick by his Modern Republican guns, but he does not intend to turn them on the other wing of his party ("Our job," explained a top ranker in the National Committee, "is to bust a gut to elect every Republican who gets nominated").
Varieties of Republicanism. Of the 21 G.O.P. seats in the U.S. Senate that are at stake in the 1958 election, less than half are held by men who fit Eisenhower's definition of Modern Republicanism. Ike would have no more misgivings about backing Barry Goldwater than a Democratic President would have in endorsing Virginia's Harry Byrd. But Ike's struggle will come in swallowing some others in the 21, e.g., the party's three Senate Neanderthals, Molly, Jenner and Joe: i.e., Nevada's George W. Malone, Indiana's William Ezra Jenner and Wisconsin's Joe McCarthy. Both Malone and Jenner (who already is braying against Eisenhower Republicanism back home in Indiana) are considered unbeatable for Republican nomination. Only McCarthy, who is being looked upon with disdain by a growing number of Wisconsin voters, seems to be in for serious challenge—probably from former (1951-56; Republican Governor Walter Kohler.
Between now and November 1958, Dwight Eisenhower's concept of Modern Republicanism will be in for a critical test. It will be attacked bitterly by the unmodern Republicans and attacked happily by the Democrats*, whose own deep party split is minimized by the fact that they do not have a President in the White House. When Republican leaders from eight Midwestern states met in Omaha last week to talk strategy for the 1958 elections, President Eisenhower told them that the party is only as strong as its local leadership. To link that oddly assorted local leadership into national control of Congress in 1958 will be a formidable task.
† His grandfather was Michael ("Big Mike") Goldwasser, a legendary Polish Jew who sold supplies to prospectors along the Colorado River during the Gold Rush.
* Last week's favorite story in Capitol Hill cloakrooms:
First Boy: What are your politics?
Second Boy: I'm a Republican.
First Boy: A Modern Republican?
Second Boy: Heck, no. My mother and father were married.