A VIEW FROM THE FLOOR

Snapshots (sometimes pot shots) of the Senate in 1956 taken by a then sixteen-year-old page who served during one Congressional session. In retrospect, Mr. Madison claims, ""I measured the Senate by its capacity to combine extremes and incongruities, quaintness and grandeur, genius and stupidity. The overwhelming impression was of the inexhaustible variety and vitality of the institution, its resilience and resourcefulness."" Frank-ly, on the spot, he measured the performance and personality of individual senators, became a dedicated autograph hunter (former Veep Barkley and Miss Universe), a diarist of the issues in the 84th Congressional session, and by convention time, a Democrat who idolized JFK. He stands by his reasoning for his prediction that Johnson would never be president--his photographic image. From corridor gossip to chamber speeches, Frank Madison took it down, talks back--an inside-outsider's view of casual interest for a mature audience.