Inside Report (1)

January 23, 1981

Conservative Republicans are fed up with Sen. Lowell Weicker of Connecticut again. Weicker considerably agered the conservatives by his Jan. 21 Senate vote against confirming Alexander Haig as US secretary of state.

Weicker first ran afoul of some in the GOP with his outspokenness toward the Nixon administration during the Watergate hearings. Early on, he indicated he could not support the Haig nomination and was one of only six senators -- and the only Republican -- to veto no.

Anti-Weicker sentiment may propel James Buckley, the conservative former lawmaker from New York, into another try for the Senate from Connecticut in 1982 . Buckley last year campaigned unsuccessfully for a Senate comeback.

Meanwhile, speculation increases that Buckley is headed for a slot in the Reagan administration, perhaps under Haig at t he State Department.m