Case Predicts Republican Comeback With Moderates in Control of Party

Sen. Clifford P. Case (R.N.J.) predicted last night that "the rise of the Republican party from the ashes in which it now lies will be as spectacular as its defeat last week."

Case, who did not support the GOP's nominee, Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, during the Presidential campaign, apparently feels that the Republican comeback will take place under the direction of the party's moderate wing. "It was a temporary kind of thing," he said of the conservative takeover of the party. "Many things were learned that won't have to be relearned-I hope."

But Case said he did not care whether Dean Burch, a Goldwater appointee and a former assistant to the Senator, was replaced as chairman of the Republican National Committee, since "the national chairman does not hold a policy-making job."

Case said that the Goldwater campaign had been "doomed to defeat." "The American political system, as I see it, is based not on division, but on drawing together," he said. "The campaign of Senator Goldwater was opposed to this principle and thus wholly wrong."

Case said he refused to support Goldwater because of the Senator's stand on the civil rights bill. Asked about the Republican Congressmen in the South, Case said that "these people won't determine the course of the Republican party on civil rights."

'Horrible Mess"

He continued, "My guess is that you will have a two-party system in the South from now on-and maybe a three-party system until this horrible mess of racism gets cleared up."

The Senator supported Massachusetts Attorney-General Edward Brooke's proposal for a special convention of the party in 1965, although he observed that such meetings ordinarily do not make clear decisions.

Speaking more generally about politics, Case said that great problems, including most matters of foreign policy, should be approached outside of partisan politics.

Case said he is "a believer in non-ideological politics." He said the choices between candidates should be made not on the basis of party but on differences in personal competence and in approaches to particular issues.

Case, whom Richard Nixon lumped with Nelson Rockefeller as a member of the G.O.P.'s "ultra-liberal" wing Tuesday, was asked if Nixon might be called upon to unify the party. "I wish Mr. Nixon had taken a position of leadership in the party before the convention," he said. "It might have been more effective."