Democrats: Long’s Two Hats

At 47, Louisiana’s Democratic Senator Russell Long has been in the U.S. Senate for 17 years, and seems assured of remaining there as long as he wants the job. As Democratic whip, he is Mike Mansfield’s heir apparent to the Senate’s majority leadership. In addition, with the resignation of Virginia Democrat Harry Byrd (TIME, Nov. 19), Long, the ranking Democrat on Byrd’s powerful Senate Finance Committee, will automatically become committee chairman when Congress reconvenes in January. Seldom in Senate history has one man held two such pivotal posts, and there were hints last week that fellow Senators will try to relieve him of one, probably the whip’s job.

So far, the only Senator to suggest publicly that Long step down as whip has been Arizona’s Carl Hayden. Long was not about to take the hint. In Baton Rouge last week, he threw down the gauntlet. “If they don’t want me to do it,” he said, “they’ll have to fire me.”

That could be difficult. Long has staunch supporters in the Senate, an admirer in Lyndon Johnson, and the family stomach for infighting—as he showed last January when he defeated Rhode Island’s John Pastore and Oklahoma’s Mike Monroney for the whip’s job. This time around, Pastore, at least, has declared himself out of the running. Said he: “I see no reason why Long should not continue as whip along with his other committee assignments. So far as the whip’s office is concerned, I was lukewarm to it last year, and today I am absolutely frigid.”