Spiro Agnew and Watergate question

Politics & Elections
21

NY Times, November 29th, 1973?:
"WASHINGTON—The choice of Gerald Ford to be Vice President is, of all Mr. Nixon’s personal political decisions, both the worst and the best he has ever made. Worst because Ford as Vice President will prove fatal to Mr. Nixon’s efforts to retain the Presidency; best in that the country in the weeks and months ahead will see the end of the nightmare of the Nixon Presidency and a transition of power into a Ford Presidency that is both honest and competent.

This view continues to gain weight here in Washington as political observers watch with grim satisfaction as the Nixon tragedy plays itself out. While it is impossible to foresee the ending—resignation, impeachment or physical disability—the President’s portion of the chessboard has been swept clean of defenders, with the exposed king scrambling frantically, and vainly, to save himself. President Nixon cannot survive in office much longer, and Michigan’s Gerald Ford will be America’s next President.

While he was Vice President, Spiro Agnew’s greatest value to Richard Nixon was as an insurance policy. It was impossible to seriously consider removing Mr. Nixon with Mr. Agnew the alternative President. Thus, Mr. Agnew’s sudden resignation from the Vice‐Presidency placed Mr. Nixon in jeopardy though I doubt this was realized in the White House. By stepping down, Mr. Agnew suddenly made Mr. Nixon’s removal from office possible.

As long as the Vice‐Presidency remained vacant, however, President Nixon was secure. Congressional Democrats had no desire to maneuver any Democrat into the Presidency and give the impression of “stealing” the 1972 election, and Carl Albert, Speaker of the House, gave every sign of dreading the prospect that the job might fall to him. What Congressional Democrats feared most was a new Vice President who would become an unbeatable Republican Presidential nominee in 1976. Jerry Ford would be an ideal caretaker President—an adequate, politically nonthreatening choice. Despite a conservative voting record, he is considered a decent, competent and thoroughly likable member of the club. Jerry Ford, then, is clearly not a Spiro Agnew, and as Vice President, he is a viable and attractive alternative to Mr. Nixon

22

I always thought that Nixon wanted to nominate Connelly after Agnew resigned but the democrats in the senate didn’t want Connelly to have any momentum going into 1976, making Ford the only alternative.

23

That’s part of it, but Connally was also investigation by Congress at the time for handling a secret Nixon campaign fund. Connally wasn’t very much liked by Democrats, having switched over to the GOP. He was seen as having all of Lyndon Johnson’s worst traits and few of his best by contemporaries, too; Connally was considered a slick wheeler-dealer. Ford was the only pick because he was so well-liked by both parties in Congress. I suspect that by October 1973, Congressmen knew there was a 50% or better chance that whoever they were nominating would become President in not too short a time, and that probably also factored into it.

Nixon’s next choices were Rockefeller, Reagan, Goldwater, Ford, Howard Baker or Elliot Richardson. All of these were under his consideration.

Ford, BTW, suggested to Nixon that Connally or Ronald Reagan replace Agnew.

The RNC voted in favor of Reagan (56 votes), Rockefeller (51 votes), with 47 each for Connally and Goldwater.

The cabinet had four votes for Rockefeller, three for Secretary of State Will Rogers, with two each for Reagan and Ford.

The Senate had six for Rockefeller, five for Goldwater, four for Connally and Reagan. Ford led in the House with 80 votes, 35 votes for Rockefeller, 23 for Reagan, and 16 for Connally.

Anyone of those men except for Connally would’ve been acceptable to the Congress.

Nixon ultimately thought his safest bet was to go with the safest, most uncontroversial man - thus VP Ford.

24

I think most peoples’understanding of Nixon and that time period are wrong. Over-simplified, and completely lacking the depth of history needed to be aware of the dynamics that led to and guided what happened.

First and foremost, envisioning Nixon as a person who knew he was a bad guy, and actively plotted his entire political life with lies in order to gain power or to accomplish nefarious deeds, is almost comically cartoonish. Nixon was always a flawed personality, with his resentful and vengeful nature, but those characteristics were small when compared to the fact that he really did want to, and believe he could and should lead the country to better times. He was NOT trying to be President to do “bad things.”

The political times he came up the ranks in, need to be understood as well. While people since then, have become upset every time they hear of behind the scenes backroom games being played as a part of candidate selection, until the second half of the twentieth century, skulduggery during elections was not only accepted, it was expected, and even looked upon as part of the entertainment value of the electoral process. Political machines that distorted the local vote, were only half way disliked, and were often thought of by at least half the people, as being defenders of the core constituencies (tragically, we are entering another period where at least one of the major parties is encouraging their supporters to think of vote manipulation as a necessary and even a clever way to insure that their inherently good ideas win out).
Most politicians then, including Nixon, knew they had to play sordid games to make it to the top, or at least turn a blind eye to the part of their political party which did the dirty work for them. Both parties indulged in the same kind of antics, though in that particular time, there was probably more tricks and stunts being pulled by the Republicans than by the Democrats, only because the GOP was still furious about the tricks the Democrats got away with electing Kennedy and Johnson.

That, combined with Nixon’s personality shortcomings, is what led to his choosing to try to cover up the Watergate mess, rather than rooting it out. By that time, almost everyone in his Administration had come to think that the nation was better off with smart strongmen doing whatever it takes to fool America into doing what was best for it and for the world, so almost everyone around Nixon committed whatever crimes, lies, bribery and other stunts they thought were needed to allow them to continue in power.

But again, they never thought of themselves as bad people. They always thought that they were acting in the best interests of the country. And THAT is why Nixon chose Ford when the time came. A combination of inner party gaming, to be sure, and Nixon’s personal resentments and paranoia played a part, but overall, Ford was chosen because Nixon really did think he would do a better job for the country.

Vice Presidents are still to this day, never chosen for the official cover story reason that most modern Presidential candidates give (i.e. that "he could be a good President too!). They are, as they have always been, chosen entirely with an eye to increasing the likelihood that the PRESIDENT will win election. And many Veeps continue into second terms, not because they are still needed for that reason, but simply because switching from one person to another would give the opposing party the ability to claim that the President was a screw up who chose the wrong running mate the first time around.

In short, everyone knew Agnew was flawed, because all of THEM were flawed in similar ways. But they thought he would help Nixon win, and he apparently did.

Jokes about the VEEP being there to frighten people away from getting rid of the Pres have been repeated in various ways since forever. They are meaningless.

25

Given what we know now, the selection of Dan Quayle makes perfect sense. He reminded Bush of his son.

26

:stuck_out_tongue:

Dan Quayle made perfect sense at the time (1988). He shored up support for a moderate Republican in a much more conservative heartland for the party (Indiana and the mid-West). And despite his smackdown by Lloyd Bentsen in 1988 (one of the all-time greatest political put-downs ever uttered!), Bush/Quayle smashed Dukakis/Bentsen quite thoroughly, so the choice of Quayle can be seen as quite rational, and probably accomplished exactly what it intended.

Nor, frankly, can the loss in 1992 be attributed to Quayle on the ticket. Bush the Elder lost that election all on his own.

27

If you rearrange the letters in Spiro Agnew it spells Grow a penis. :smiley:

28

Wasn’t George Bush considered? I recall reading somewhere that Bush felt slighted by being passed over.

29

That is my recollection exactly. He wasn’t originally chosen as an attack dog, but he became a useful one.

30

He was on the list yes, but he was much higher on Ford’s list than Nixon’s. He ranked rather lowly on Bush’s list. Outside of Nixon campaigning for him and party matters, I don’t believe they had much of a professional relationship. Nixon was very much detached from his party after he became President. For example, the landslide of 1972 was NIXON’S landslide; he didn’t go out of his way to help the down-ticket. Ford was more tied to the party, was more of a partisan. I think he might have felt more passed over by Ford as such than by Nixon. Nixon had long since been “one of them”, but Ford had been a member of Congress until very recently, and chose Rockefeller over one of his own boys. Bush was the second place choice for Ford in 1974. It was going to be either Rockefeller or Bush.

31

Caving in to Pat Buchanan and turning the election from an economic debate to a cultural one is what cost him 1992.

I’ve often wondered how different 1988 would’ve turned out if Bentsen was on top of the ticket, and Dukakis was the running mate. Always liked Bentsen. He seemed like a good no-BS centrist New Dealer type.

32

By the way, fun fact: On Nixon’s shortlist for running mates in 1960 were Prescott Bush and Gerald Ford.

33

Nixon DID joke that Spiro Agnew was his life insurance policy. But the real reason he picked Agnew as his running mate was simpler: it was a reward! Agnew’s endorsement helped Nixon win the GOP nomination in 1968. Agnew had been a Nelson Rockefeller supporter- his switch gave Nixon’s campaign a big boost.

And since Agnew was seen then as a moderate (just the opposite of his image now) and as a Rockefeller ally, picking him was a way of offering an olive branch to the liberal wing of the party.