The Democrats' Texas Middleman

Joking, cajoling, bullying, mediating, Party Chairman Robert S. Strauss, 56, was clearly the impresario at Kansas City, a Texas-style wheeler-dealer of the old school who knew how to get things together. At times, he would lick the tips of his fingers, like a quarterback getting ready to throw a touchdown pass. Strauss liked the role and the praise, and he exulted unashamedly in the power that he wielded as the man who, more than any other, was holding the disparate Democrats together.

"I ought to be doing well, as hard as I'm working," Strauss said privately at one point with characteristic bluntness. "I've got talent too, of course, but I work damn hard. I've made a success of my marriage, my family, my business, my law practice and now my politics. If they wanted a loser, they got the wrong man. I'm a winner."

Garrulous and profane, an almost compulsive talker, Strauss is a throwback to the era of the smoke-filled rooms. At a time when the far-out liberals and the deep-dyed conservatives threaten to pull the Democrats apart, Strauss is the great compromiser who is dedicated to strengthening the center, which he defines as the "progressive middle" of the party. The job is ticklish, but Strauss points out: "A poor Jewish kid from West Texas learns early how to survive."

The son of a small-town merchant who had emigrated from Germany, Strauss got his law degree from the University of Texas. He went on to help found what was to become one of the top law firms in Dallas and to make a fortune in banking, real estate and radio stations. Strauss got his start in politics in 1962 when he raised funds for the successful gubernatorial campaign of John B. Connally, a good friend and college classmate. In 1968, Connally named him to the Democratic National Committee, and in 1970 Strauss became party treasurer, inheriting a $9.3 million debt, which he quickly reduced to $3 million by some determined, deft fund raising.

After George McGovern's humiliating defeat in 1972, Strauss was backed by party regulars--including Senator Henry M. Jackson, Senator Hubert Humphrey and the AFL-CIO'S Alexander Barkan--to replace Party Chairman Jean Westwood, a McGovernite liberal.

Strauss won by a margin of 4% votes, out of the 203% cast, but came to power disliked, mistrusted and feared by the liberals and reformers, and suspected of racism by the blacks. Said Strauss to his wife Helen shortly after the election: "We're going to have to win our way out of this one, babe."

Strauss's technique was to keep in close touch with all factions of the party, ranging from Alabama Governor George Wallace on the right to Black Caucus leaders on the left, and try to maintain a scrupulous neutrality among the jockeying presidential hopefuls of the party. A resolute pragmatist, Strauss was lukewarm at best about some of the party reforms proposed by the liberals, but backed them because he sensed that they were supported by a broad majority of the party.

In so doing, Strauss infuriated some of his earliest backers, including AFL-CIO President George Meany, who fears that reforms like "affirmative action" may weaken his organization's strength within the party. But Strauss had gathered so much support for the measures that Meany's aides were prepared no more than ritualistically to oppose them on the floor in Kansas City. While Strauss has also at times enraged the liberals, most have come to back his campaign to move the party only as far and as fast as possible, and to trust him. Says New York Congressman Edward Koch: "He's a straight shooter. You know that he's not trying to con you."

One solid indication of Strauss's success is that he is supported by each of the major figures in the party who might get the nomination in 1976. Looking ahead to the coming election, Strauss says: "I'm going to have more and more trouble with the hard-liners on the left and right. I'm going to have to take the 15% at the fringes and keep them in the position of a halfway-mean dog that goes grr a lot and that you hope doesn't bite you. If I do that, and I'm fair about it, I'll be the kind of chairman that the majority of the party wants."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.