THE LOVE PARTY

This commentary on political life attempts to satirize politics and its partisans but the end result is fatuous cynicism. The author's Senate-bound vehicle-Clifford J. Runkle-(D)-California, winds and winces his way through the upper echelons of power-politics. It is easy to understand Congressman Runkle's ambitious motives- Prestige and POWER, less easy to laugh at his delight over an opponents's perhaps fatal illness; his calculating opportunism even though his daughter's sacrifice in being crowned ""Miss Dried Fruits""-is supposed to be funny. (She falls in love with the crowner- a young Congressman-(R)-California.) The possible humorist in the bland blend is his wife but she remains a hopeless composite of off-beat wives seeking fulfillment. Justice serves no desserts at the end as Runkle prepares to add a governor (Congressman- R) to the family. No Convention-al appeal.