Editorial: Guffey and Southerners
Led mainly by Senator Byrd of Virginia, a backsliding bloc of Southern Senators has revived the idea that Senator Joe Guffey, Pennsylvania’s leading coattail rider, should step out as chairman of the 1944 senatorial campaign committee.
Offhand, we can’t get much excited about whether Mr. Guffey steps down from this job or not.
As a matter of fact, we doubt that his presence as chairman of the senatorial campaign committee will make a whole lot of difference. By our standards, his name at the top of the committee’s stationery would not be regarded as exactly an asset.
But Mr. Guffey has been chairman of this committee in several campaigns. Up to now, there has been no complaint from Senators Byrd, Bailey of North Carolina or Smith of South Carolina, chief characters in the act of being incensed about Senator Guffey.
As a matter of fact, the chief cause for this demand for Senator’s Guffey’s scalp comes, not so much from base opinions these Southern gentlemen may have of Pennsylvania’s junior Senator, as from the fact that he said hard things about their opposition to a soldier-vote bill.
Senator Smith is the only one of this incensed trio who is a candidate for reelection this year. And if Senator Guffey’s position as chairman of the senatorial campaign committee turns out to be a liability to Senator Smith, it seems to us Senator Guffey, for once, will be performing a genuine public service.
The truth is that Senator Guffey was not too objectionable to these colleagues until he let loose with several blasts at an “unholy alliance” of Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans which he said was responsible for defeat of a soldier-vote bill.
Whether or not the alliance was “unholy” may be a matter of opinion, but any group which deprives the Armed Forces of a vote of achieving an “unholy” purpose.
On that issue, Senator Guffey can make no mistake if he maintains an unyielding obstinacy.