This program takes a candid look at the unfinished business facing the United States Senate in 1964, and explores the political implications of that legislation in an election year. The outcome of the tax cut and civil rights bills which have been bottlenecked in both houses could mean success or failure for President Johnson, political experts assert. For these two bills, the experts say, will truly put to the test his powers of persuasion with his former Senatorial colleagues. The host is Sidney Hyman, Washington political historian, is author of the book The American President. An authority on presidential politics, Mr. Hyman has written numerous articles on this subject for national publications and regularly for the Sunday Magazine of the New York Times. One of his recent articles, The Qualities That Make a President, appeared in the December 1, 1963 issue of that magazine. The guests are U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper (R-Kentucky), who has served in the Senate from 1947 through 1948, from 1953 through 1954, and from 1957 to present. He is a member of the Senate committees on agriculture and forestry, public works, and small business. He also has been a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly (1949-51) and an adviser at the 1950 NATO Council of Ministers and the 1958 UNESCO Conference in Paris. During the President Eisenhower administration he served as ambassador to India and Nepal; and U.S. Senator Eugene J. McCarthy (D-Minnesota), a liberal Democrat, served in the House of Representatives in the 81st to the 85th Congresses, during with time he was on the House Ways and Means Committee. He was elected U.S. Senator in 1958, and is now a member of the Senate committees on finance and agriculture and forestry. He also has served on the Senate Special Committee of Unemployment Problems. Senator McCarthy is the author of the book Frontiers in American Democracy and Dictionary of American Politics. Notes: Both Senators have been mentioned by political analysts as possible vice presidential nominees in 1964. Running Time: 28:51 (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche) At Issue consists of 69 half-hour and hour-long episodes produced in 1963-1966 by NET, which were originally shot on videotape in black and white and color.
