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Carl Cohen (above) hit Frankie who had friend- lier service from Jack Entratter (right center) easiness is slight compared with that of the frustrated Democratic majority on Capitol Hill, faced with th6 prospect of running as a do-nothing Congress in 1968. Such an issue will make it a banner year for the GOP, says chairman Cowger. ?╟úIt will be a Republican sweep,?╟Ñ he pre- dicts confidently. The cocky, confident young freshmen stoutly refuse to admit that their repeat-' ed votes against the Administration merit low grades in Congress. The newcomers insist they have simply been following the GOP leadership?╟╓s ?╟úpositive?╟Ñ program, the so-called Constructive Republican Al- ternative Proposals. That inaptly named scheme, as downcast Democrats hasten to point out, also provides the perfect ac- ronym to sum up their own estimate of the Republican approach in the 90th Congress. LAS VEGAS: Render Unto Caesars For nearly a decade Frank Sinatra was the undisputed king of Las Vegas, and the swinging Sands Hotel was the gaming palace wherein he reigned. He and a court of worshipful cronies culti- vated a public life-style of puerile antics that enchanted Vegas audiences?╟÷and encouraged them to flock to the Sands to drop their coin in Sinatra?╟╓s realm. As a drawing card the king of Vegas could not be aced, and so, around the Sands, Si- natra?╟╓s word was law?╟÷until a little after 6 a.m. one day early last week. It was then that Sinatra ambled into the Sands casino and tried to exercise his longtime right of calling for chips on credit?╟÷only to be told that his credit had run out. The king erupted. He spewed abuse, first at helpless pitmen and deal- ers and finally at Carl Cohen, executive vice president and casino manager. The words that passed between them were not clear but the action was: first the trigger-tempered 52-year-old entertain- er tipped over Cohen?╟╓s table. And then the 250-pound Cohen?╟÷a good-natured, gray-haired, 55-year-old?╟÷sprang to his feet and landed a punch in the center of Frankie?╟╓s famous face. The blow blood- ied his royal nose, bruised his lip, knocked out two front teeth and sent Si- natra sprawling. Frankie bounced back yelling and heaved a chair that missed Cohen but hit a security guard in the head. After rampaging around the Sands, the king flew off to Los Angeles and a session with his dentist, Dr. A.B. Wein- stein, who was summoned from New York to repair the cap job on the teeth. Joust: When the brawl hit the head- lines so did an announcement that Si- natra had quit the Sands. And so did word that he had signed up for appear- ances at the competing Caesars Palace. ?╟úThey wouldn?╟╓t give me any credit in the casino,?╟Ñ Sinatra explained to one colum- nist, ?╟úand I quit.?╟Ñ All of this was served up with knowing intimations that the whole rhubarb was the climax of a joust between titans?╟÷Sinatra on the one hand and, on the other, industrialist Howard Hughes, the eccentric billionaire who has recently bought big chunks of Vegas prop- erty including the Sands Hotel. As it turned out, Sinatra had been negotiating with Caesars Palace for two months and had already signed up be- fore the tiff with the Sands. Sinatra?╟╓s credit was cut off, Sands sources said, precisely because he was running up sizable tabs just as he was leaving for Caesars. What?╟╓s more, the Hughes- owned Sands suspected that Sinatra, in spite of his considerable wealth, must be relatively hard up for cash because he had been frantically trying to peddle his Cal-Neva Lodge on Lake Tahoe to the Hughes interests. Indeed, almost at the moment Sinatra was getting his face bashed in, the publicity flacks at Caesars Palace were already sending out tele- grams announcing not oply that they had signed up Sinatra for three years, but that they had also bought his Cal- Neva Lodge. The news release noted the king?╟╓s ?╟úregret?╟Ñ at his move. ?╟úI have admired and respected Howard Hughes for many years,?╟Ñ the handout quoted Sinatra as saying, ?╟úand regret that my decision to accept the offer of Caesars Palace comes so soon after his acquisi- tion of the Sands.?╟Ñ Switch: Most Vegas observers agreed that Sinatra?╟╓s Sands-to-Caesars Palace switch, topped off by his tantrum, was due to his festering chagrin over being eclipsed in Vegas by the new inacces- sible omnipotence of Howard Hughes. After Hughes bought the Desert Inn, where he has long been a tenant of the penthouse, and then acquired the Sands, Sinatra set the style for every comic on the Strip. ?╟úYou?╟╓re wondering,?╟Ñ Sinatra cracked to one Sands audience, ?╟úwhy I don?╟╓t have a drink in my hand? Hughes bought it.?╟Ñ But privately, Sinatra found nothing funny about the Hughes take- over from his longtime pal Jack Entratter ?╟÷and he fumed when Hughes turned down the Cal-Neva deal. The enigmatic recluse, in fact, would not even deign to return Sinatra?╟╓s telephone calls. Long- time Sinatra buffs said that the enter- tainer?╟╓s enmity toward Hughes had been building ever since the time some twenty years ago that he tried to woo Lana Turner away from the airplane builder ?╟÷and never got off the ground. But there was no evidence that the rancor of the dethroned king even regis- tered in the Hughes sanctum atop the Desert Inn. The joke making the rounds in Vegas was that when told of Sinatra?╟╓s departure from the Sands, Hughes re- plied, ?╟úFrank who??╟Ñ LAW: Jinx Strip When the stretch of highway opened in 1964 it seemed a model of modern engineering. And that?╟╓s just the way it looked to 19-year-old Paul Shipley as he cruised along the freeway in California?╟╓s Contra Costa County at 60 miles an hour on a wet night. As he approached a gen- 32 Newsweek