POLITICAL NOTES: Making Points

After buzzing New York harbor in a helicopter with a delegation of state and local officials that included Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Mayor John Lindsay, President Nixon made points last week with city cliff dwellers and conservationists by calling for the creation of a Gateway National Recreation Area in the vicinity of the harbor. It was a curious meeting of three Republicans who rarely agree with one another on much of anything. But Nixon’s political purpose was not to mollify his fellow Republicans. Rather, by making the chopper tour, he deftly took the headlines away from a possible presidential rival, Democratic Senator Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, who had scheduled a congressional hearing on the project for later in the week.