Letter from a Whig
Will, George F.
"Letter from a Whig" The Power of Incumbency George F. Will When the 92rid Congress re-convened on 8 September it was operating in a political atmosphere very different from...
...These speculators -- these sensible persons -- included a large number of executives of American-based in, ernat tonal corporalions...
...All eyes were cast down...
...Think of it, the whole Nation gasping over the revelations suggested by the Pentagon Papers...
...While ~hey proposed, he disposed...
...The Rt...
...this great man continues to read and to bawl...
...He left critics looking futile, and more than a little bit feckless...
...There has been almost no effort in the Senate to impugn the motives of any other Senator...
...Nevertheless, on balance I think the risks are an acceptable price to pay for silencing and demoralizing the President's homefront opposition...
...Sincerely, From a doctor in New York State: Dear Senator Gravel: God bless you...
...He has pledged to cut spending by $4.7 billion...
...It is not recorded if there was musical accompaniment, but my imagination instructs me that somewhere behind the sobbing Senator there must have been a solitary yodeller...
...Thousands of horses are critically ill with Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis in the Home of the Brave...
...That is not enough, given the swollen state of the budget (and the deficits), but it shows that his heart is in the right place...
...10 The Alternative October, 1971 The Power of Incumbency George F. Will When the 92rid Congress re-convened on 8 September it was operating in a political atmosphere very different from that which prevailed two months eariler...
...Presidents make news -- and, no, infrequently, history...
...And it forced the Democrats to seize upon another issue...
...Again, as in the China gambit, he caught :he givers of gratuilous advice in midsent ence...
...Another is Senator Mike Gravel, the freshman Senator from America's Siberian Commonwealth...
...Whatever one thinks of the China trip, it is impossible to deny that it has served a splendid domesqc purpose: it has made the peace movement seem and feel irrelevant...
...In comparison, his rivals h~)ked irrelevant...
...The events of 15 July and 15 August demonstrated a homely truth about American politics...
...You are the greatest senator, and we all love you...
...The President's economic plan should give pause to those conservatives who were in a slough of despond following the President's announcement about China...
...On 16 July conservatives were wondering whal difference il made having a Republican rather than a Democrat in the Whi~e House...
...But I shall remember it always...
...Not only did it make me aware of a new star on the political horizon, but it also informed me as to the kind of American who takes his politics seriously...
...George F. Will graduated from Trinity College in 1962, received a degree from Oxford University, Magdalen College in 1964 and earned his Ph...
...Nixon understands the power of incumbency, and will use that power resourcefully to have the economy vigorous by October, 1972...
...Milton Friedman should note that Prof...
...Those who chose to look upon the President's policy package as a repudiation of Prof...
...That is showmanship of the top chop...
...The show was over...
...In facl, revenue sharing is going nowhere in Congress...
...Thank you...
...Pooh poohing the allegation made by one of the Senate's old guard (the Coolidge wing which controlled Mr...
...On 15 July he announced his trip to Peking...
...And on the home front there was vast dismay at the condition of the economy and the President's stated determination to stand pat with an unconvincing "game plan...
...Others possessed-of less dignity and more foolishmess have sought employment in related industries like the ministry and politics...
...These two actions, planned with commendable secrecy and executed with unusual elan, cut the opposition off at the knees...
...The economy is where Nixon is vulnerable...
...And if things are going reasonably well in 1972, the voters will not rock the boat...
...After his peroration the distinguished Senator Gravel asked that letters from various well-wishers be included in the Congressional Record...
...Bayh concluded...
...Nixon) that he had brought discredit to the Senate he asserted "What I did, I felt and continue to feel, will bring credit to the United States Senate, not embarrassment...
...Barnum...
...So the most ,he Democrats have left by way of an issue is the economy...
...The President drove the Democrats onto a promising political path...
...Thus ii was neither surprising nor a!arming when our Governmen* waffled on aboul "speculators...
...On 16 August they got a kind of answer...
...While the liberal press and like-minded legislators had been decrying secrecy, the President had been using secrecy as a clearly indispensible instrument for af-fecqng goals which that press and those legislators approve...
...Americans vote on pocketbook issues...
...He asserted that his act had been performed "in the best interest of this Nation we all love...
...He is planning a five percent reduction in the Federal work force...
...Hence a lot of second- and third-rate clowns have had to seek gainful employment outside of the big top...
...Incidentally, as if his solitary performance were not amusing enough, he actually held it in -- you will never believe me - - the hearing room of the Public Work's Committee's Building and Grounds Subcommittee...
...It seems safe to say that 'he President is gaining a lot of health from the awkard but endurable chore of eating some" stale words...
...Friedman has long advocated floating the dollar...
...Sure as God made little green apples, if any of the Democratic contenders were in qle White House they would be opting for different stimulants...
...They would favor using the Federal Government as "the employer of last resort" -- and we would be in for another avalanche of public works projects, maybe even including more murals and leaf-raking...
...and it will cause a substantial shift in trade advantages...
...Sincerely, Dear Senator Gravel: I have just returned from hearing you tonight, and I apologize for everything that i have thought of you these past few days...
...Senate is that there are 100 Members from all across the counlry who look upon each other's activities as the activities of one representing one-4ff the 50 states...
...Hunger stalks the' Land of the Free...
...And indeed he would not...
...But in terms of lasting impact, the most significant item was the floating of the dr,liar...
...I am reprinting several of them below that you who are not daily readers of the Record might know what manner of American fauna takes politics seriously...
...Birch Bayh, flushed with a sense of the historical import of this moment first attracted the attention of the good-natured President pro tempore...
...The President wants to stimulate the economy by stimulating private spending ra~her than by increasing spending in the public sector...
...Johnson and now controls Mr...
...American elections are almost never de~ermined by foreign policy questions...
...Senator Gravel performed for the Washing:on press corps by sitting alone and reading classified documents into the wee hours of the morn...
...While his rivals spoke, he acted...
...A speculator is someone whose expec~ ations are embarrassing...
...Those are not electrifying arguments, and it is hard to be heard -- never mind persuasive -against a determined incumbent unless one has something electrifying to say...
...That is not enough, considering the relentless expansion of ,hat force in recent years...
...I would never be party to any act that would bring discredit to this august body...
...On the assumption that the President is sound on the issues but ugly on television, they may look for someone pretty...
...The Alternative October, 1971 11 In fact, the lesson of this whole episode is, "Thank God for the speculators !" Their sensible pursuit of profit depends on an objective -- as opposed to nationalistic -assessment of our currency...
...Many have simply gone on relief and been done with it...
...Mike Gravel's Hour of Glory Bascom C. Slemp as told to R. Emmett T y r r e l l , J r . Now if one is to grasp an authentic hold on the essence of America circa 1971 it will help to bear in mind that circuses are not so popular as they were thirty years ago...
...On the evening of 5 July the Rt...
...Furthermore, if any welfare ref~Jrm does pass, it may not look much like FAP, and the President will not get the credit...
...There are those who see John Lindsay as as the natural choice...
...In t his case, "specular or s" were persons who expected (correctly) that the obvious weakness of the dollar would lead to a decrease in it s value relative to the other major currencies...
...pull-out...
...The economy is the issue with which Democrats are most comfortable, and to which Republicans are most vulnerable...
...Both the President and Secretary Connally voiced a lot of pious nonsense about the "internaqonal money speculators" who allegedly had done wicked things to our vir' uous dollar...
...In July and August their actions called attention to the weakness of the dollar...
...Earlier in the summer the President was on the run, and the pack of Democratic Presidential aspirants was nipping at his heels...
...In foreign policy, the Communists' seven-point peace proposal had breathed fresh life into the Senate's peace agitators...
...What superb cool...
...Candidates make speeches...
...As de Tocqueville noted, democracies are no~ graceful in 1heir conduct of foreign affairs...
...even though I have found myself locked in near mortal combat with some of my colleagues over an issue, one thing that has impressed me about the U.S...
...But on 15 Augusl he did what only a President can do...
...Congressman McCloskey will have time to ponder that ~ru*h when, as he trudges through the fabled "snows of New Hampshire," the President lands in Peking...
...But f~,r the record, the "speculators" are being libeled and mislabeled...
...He preempted the path, roared through in a shiny new car (minus excise t ax), and forced the Democrats into the ditch...
...In an eloquent statement, which illicited guffaws and horselaughs from every intelligent spectator in the gallery, Mr...
...Lacking a salient issue, the Democrats may choose a "'personality" (as opposed to an "issue") candidate...
...I, for one, think that the Senator from Alaska has got through a very difficult time...
...Honorable men of good will can and do disagre about the wisdom of the President's new China policy...
...The following day he 0erformed a variation of his earlier act, this time on the floor of the Senate before a packed session of his peers...
...HOO Hah, a good time was had by all, and the Junior Senator did not even slur his words or spill the suspicious looking glass of water that always remained close to his shaking paw - - so thorough had been his apprenticeship under Mr...
...And, though he would be no more specific, I suspect his cryptic reference was to the United States of America...
...Should il pass in the form the President wants, he will get the blame...
...Now they have been reduced to arguing that they were virtuous first, or that, given the chance, they would be fiVeen percent more virtuous...
...The President has asked Congress "to postpone the implement at ion of revenue sharing for three months and welfare reform for one year...
...The wage and price freezing is the most speclacular part of the new policy...
...It is now clear ,hat our longest war will end without ever having been a "voting issue...
...Will is twenty-nine and instructs physical education in Washington, D.C...
...Until 15 August the Democrats were campaigning on the proposition that they were virtuous and the President was slothful...
...This throbbing globe of woe continues to spin dizzily through the solar system missing its sister planets by mere light years...
...With fourteen months to go before the election, ~hree things seem clear...
...This opposition had coalesced around the war issue and at long las, had found a dangerous weapon in the Communists' seven-point proposal...
...But all these complaints like the complaints about the China initiative, must be weighed against the political gains made by the President...
...From Illinois: Dear Sen...
...War sears the great civilizations of Indochina...
...D. from PrinCeton in 1968...
...Some of the 15 August announcements were political froth...
...But given the exigencies of democratic politics, the President has made the most of a graceless situation...
...I salute him for the courage he has displayed" -- such is the eloquence of this presidential aspirant when he , ~ k s extemporaneously...
...The most disagreeable aspect of the economic policy shifl was the obfuscating demagoguery about "speculators...
...Daniel Ellsberg and "frequently sobbing as he did so...
...thank God there are men in this country who still do...
...A husn befell the Senate floor...
...They did not cause f hat weakness...
...For a new state Alaska is doing pretty well...
...According to a spell-bound reporter from the Associated Press, his act included reading those classified papers lifted by the celebrated second-story man, Dr...
...Then in the course of one month, the President gave the Nation a dose of Presidential leadership - - and he gave the Democratic pretenders a dramatic lesson in the powers of incumbency...
...Two such buffoons are the Reverend Paul Moore, Episcopal bishop of New York and millionaire whose wit and wisdom has been preserved for future generations in our regular Brayings column...
...In imposing a wage-price freeze, cutting spending, cutting taxes, floating the dollar, and altering his legisldtive priorivies the President was acting like a President...
...I have no more tears left...
...At long last Nixon is developing the disconcerting habit of acting like a President -- a President who enjoys the job and intends to keep-it for a while...
...The announcement of the China trip eclipsed the Communists' seven-point proposal which threatened to be the ins~ rument by which American opinion was finally s~ampeded into demanding a "date cer, ain" for the U.S...
...they only forced the Nation ~o face up to that weakness...
...For more on that subject, dear reader, return next month...
...These executives were doing what they are paid to do - - and what we should thank them for doing: they were getting their respective companies' assets out of weak currencies and into s tong currencies...
...The President's C~ina announcement cut the ground from under the antiwar agitation...
...Even at its peak --in 1968-- the Vietnam war was not a "voting issue": i: did nt, t decide eleclions...
...On 15 August he announced sweeping and generally sensible modifications of his economic policy...
...If unemployment is below six percent, and the GNP is growing at five percent per year, Nixon will win...
...This will cause a fundamental rearrangement of the international monetary system...
...While 1he Senate doves had been striking Their poses, and rallying around feckless resolufions and amendments, the President had been revamping world diplomacy...
...Respectfully...
...And in Washington, D.C...
...Webster, Clay and Calhoun had been outdone...
...Denunciations of the "gnomes of Zurich" are to be expected from nations whose economic ~chickens are coming home to roost...
...That issue -- the economy - - was ready at hand...
...I believe the ~rip is policaUy useful to the President -and that Chou En-lai is smart enough to understand that...
...Every ham in the house got up on his hind legs and begged the floor...
...Gravel: I would like to thank you for not keeping any secrets from the American people...
...Naturally the distinguished Junior Senator from Indiana, Mr...
...But it is a nice symbol...
...Therefore the President has given a hostage -- not to fortune, which is capricious, but to a hostile Government, which is calculating...
...Ironically, the President's China ~hunderbolt did the Democrats a great favor -- and forced the President to do what he did on 15 August...
Vol. 5 • October 1971 • No. 1
