Letter from a Whig
Slemp, C. Bascom
"Letter from a Whig"[Washington)—HAVING WORKED in the Vixon campaign in 1972 I had great hopes ind expectations for the Nixon Presidency. But disagreement over domestic policies with the Nixon Administration arose...
...So I won't be any better off, and may be worse...
...A strong central government was essential and we, the people, could rely on the government to exercise its powers to insure that the greatest number derived the greatest benetits . . . vox populi . . . . "Now I find myself in a peculiar position...
...I had such an experience in reading [a] piece .. .in . . . the Washington Post by the distinguished columnist, Haynes Johnson...
...However, George McGovern is up for reelection so let's not confuse the issue with facts...
...Evidence the Congressional Record, July 29, 1974: ". .. at intervals 1 [McGovern] read observations by someone that expresses exactly what I have been thinking, but have not expressed so well as the writer...
...One Senate staffer put the New Ford Convertible to blurb and was willing to share it with our readers: "No longer a stodgy middle roadster, it changes at a moment's notice...
...on his proposal for a tax cut: "Dear Sen...
...Had he condeded guilt nd "come clean" early in the course of the Vatergate history neither impeachment nor esignation would probably have been le c essa ry...
...Senator Goldwater could only shake his head upon this Ford onslaught...
...Now the United States will have to buy Rhodesian chrome from the Soviet Union at twice the previous price...
...The public will buy it...
...was none too pleased when his opponent in the upcoming elections quoted him as recommending that President Ford appoint Richard Nixon as Vice President...
...Let's give the residents of South Dakota the New Politics under the more politically appealing cloaked euphemism of "new conservatism...
...Kennedy: I appreciate your effort to cut my taxes, but if it's all the same with you I wish you wouldn't...
...McGovern's campaign chests are overflowing with money from his presidential bid and he has also begun to shed his liberal image of the New Politics for that of a New Conservative...
...It is financed with transit subsidies, it has a chauffeur that spent the last six years in Montreal, and it comes with a governor that helps make left turns...
...fears that idle time will now become the devil's playground until the Ninety-third Congress either adjourns or recesses...
...Despite the fact that it has not received media coverage, Capitol Hill conservatives are seething with anger over Ford's "convertible actions...
...Johnson's article was entitled "The Odyssey of a New Conservative" and it depicted what Johnson called his growth from a New Deal liberal to a "new conservative...
...Its bumpers are now made of non-Rhodesian chrome...
...According to a story which broke in newspapers across the country, some Congressmen and Senators stipulated "no blacks," "no minorities," "no Catholics," and other such stipulations in their requests to the placement office for job applicants...
...Not to let matters stand with that, President Ford then nominated former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller for the Vice Presidency...
...Since the decks in the Senate and House were cleaned for the impeachment process, Congressman Phil Crane (R.–Ill...
...Someone thought it might be amusing to insert phony articles into the Congressional Record under the names of various Congressmen...
...Accidents are coveredby national health insurance...
...In Nixon I had seen integrity, a man who lad not enriched himself financially hrough politics, but the country after his esignation has nevertheless been left )oorer than before he entered office...
...Not known for mincing words Stein had the following advice to offer United States Senator Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass...
...If McGovern is now in "intellectual agreement" with Senator Buckley his voting record and public pronouncements do not reveal it...
...Ah, indeed, the Republic lives on...
...I know your brother John cut taxes and that was a big hit...
...Nixon vas not popular, not even among his sup)orters on Capitol Hill, and his political )pponents hated him with a venomous pas-ion...
...Says Johnson: . . . I grew up . . . a liberal...
...The Joint Committee on Congressional Operations runs a placement service for the House and Senate membership...
...His bitter defeat left the Democratic Party scarred and divided, and whether it will be controlled by the new liberals or the old liberals come '76 has yet to be determined...
...A series of "harmless pranks" during those weeks illustrates the character of post-Watergate morality...
...Needless to say, Louisiana Democrat Otto Passman was not .amused when he read that he was calling Ann Landers columns to the attention of his fellow Congressmen...
...I say all this because I suspect many Americans today share my disquiet...
...as the Democrats' presidential candidate for the New Politics in 1972, promised the American public an eschatological age...
...Most congressional offices denied any knowledge of such requests, which can be accounted for only by ''harmless pranks...
...Nixon was his own ;reatest adversary and his own victim...
...Many of them will get to the stores early and will push prices up before I get there...
...The Ford Convertible Making political hay while the sun shines n him, President Ford has advocated a naional health insurance proposal and perating subsidies for urban mass transit ystems...
...Nor was Representative John Ashbrook of Ohio amused when he read an absurd defense of the Chilean military junta he supposedly inserted...
...It was expected that McGovern would have a tough campaign in 1974, after his nationally known liberal credentials proved unpalatable for South Dakotans—but politics is full of surprises...
...Unlike most, I was also concerned ,with the Nixon-Kissinger shuttle diplomacy ,which, however glamorous it appears, can -lever be a substitute for policy...
...Expressing his dismay, Goldwater is reported to have said that he never believed he would see the day when a Republican President would nominate Rockefeller for the Vice Presidency and come out for amnesty within the same twenty-four hour period...
...But Mr...
...Johnson, Senator McGovern has the means to show his new conservatism...
...Finally, Earle Landgrebe (R.-Ind...
...A Big Hit Shortly before leaving his position as Chairman of the Council on Economic Advisors, Herbert Stein did a guest column for the Washington Post...
...But disagreement over domestic policies with the Nixon Administration arose iuickly...
...he has proposed amnesty for Viet-am era draft dodgers and deserters...
...Unlike Mr...
...One astrologically inclined Congressman did not even want individuals born under the signs of water to apply for positions on his staff...
...Post-Watergate Morality In the weeks after President Nixon resigned, the moral tone in the Nation's Capitol was running particularly high...
...In private conversation with such as George Will and James Buckley, I discover far more areas of intellectual agreement than disagreement...
...Despite a personal trauma and a national ragedy the Republic lives on...
...But you can't do everything he did...
...Ford has also changed his mind on the Rhodesian chrome issue...
...The "harmless pranks" extended to reports of alleged discriminatory hiring practices by a number of our national legislators...
...and he as his own proposal for a Consumer Protection Agency (which despite its title would not serve to protect consumers...
...I am a new conservative with no place to go politically...
...McGovern carried only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia that year...
...In the meantime George McGovern is back on the campaign trail in his native state of South Dakota, a state which needless to say he was not able to carry during his presidential quest...
...Yet Nixon's downfall, even after his nvolvement in the Watergate coverup, was ar from inevitable...
...I am not sure any more what either they or the Republicans represent...
...I'm afraid if you cut my taxes you will have to cut taxes for a lot of other people too...
...I long ago cast off any allegiance to the Democrats as a Party...
...He will support the United Nations sanctioned embargo and thus void the Byrd amendment which had permitted importation of strategic materials from Rhodesia, particularly chrome...
...The Odyssey of a New Conservative Less than two years ago Senator George McGovern (D.-S.D...
Vol. 8 • November 1974 • No. 2
