When Gerald Ford was tapped for the Vice Presidency, Rep. Rhodes had become the House Republican leader, which is, says WFB, "a little like being made commander-in-chief of the German army after the Allies had crossed the Rhine." Mr. Rhodes's reaction to the carnage of November 5, which had left him in command of a force of 144, as against the Democrats' 291, had been to propose what WFB describes as "something called a consensus politics, a government by happy coalition of a Republican President and a Democratic Congress." Is this consistent with our two-party system? JJR: "Well, actually, Mr. Buckley, I think it's absolutely necessary ... I don't know any way you can avoid stalemate other than to have some sort of ground rules for working together." A fairly low-key conversation, but with some interesting insights on how the horse-

trading gets done in areas where, as WFB puts it, "the end is not necessarily one that is unanimously backed."