THE ROCKY ROAD TO NOWHERE
Rubin, Ronald L.
BOOKS THE ROCKY ROAD TO NOWHERE RONALD I. RUBIN "I Never Wanted to Be Vice President of Anything!": An Investigative Biography of Nelson Rockefeller MICHAEL KRAMER & SAM ROBERTS Basic Books,...
...Yet the incredible scene of the Vice Presidential nominee slapping the former Supreme Court justice on the shoulder and grinning broadly while welcoming him with a hearty "Thanks for coming," caused Harper's editor Lewis Lapham to write: I suspect that he intended nothing cynical or disingenuous...
...he's never had any . . . Rockefeller is a tabula rasa...
...Remember, when the event took place in 1961 it represented a stunning departure from what Americans expected of their political leaders...
...Furthermore, much of Rockefeller's philanthropy was directed at Black institutions...
...Goldberg would forgive him follows from his imperturbable faith in his own innocence...
...Not only did the money give Rockefeller the security and the wherewithal to buy satraps such as William Ronan and Emmet Hughes, but it was also responsible for the notion that all problems are soluble, a dubious approach in the hurly burly of democracy where sometimes the wisest strategy is inaction...
...His misapprehension of the facts is characteristic of men who inherit great wealth...
...Why didn't he instead enter the family business...
...and Rockefeller praising the fundamental American values, "Let's hear it for the Founding Fathers...
...His exuberant common touch on the campaign trail, genuine enough to be sure, can best be linked to a feeling which saw his political role as a favor to the public...
...I think they did a hell of a job...
...While serving as the longest chief executive in New York State's history, Rockefeller's spending paralleled the tremendous rise of programs undertaken by the Great Society in Washington...
...he's a clean slate...
...It may come as a surprise, therefore, to those unfamiliar with Rockefeller's complex career that New York City labor leader Victor Gotbaum presents the following appraisal: "Rockefeller is a man with no ideology...
...Rockefeller, who first came on the political scene as a representative of Franklin Roosevelt in Latin America, commands wide experience in foreign policy...
...No master ideology or attachment to a set of issues guided Rockefeller's politics...
...Were his career not marred by this flaw, we will never know whether his dream would have been any more attainable...
...The tragedy of Rockefeller's career is that he could have amounted to much more than an agile and persistent also-ran...
...Likewise, the sons of the wealthy such as John F. Kennedy never really know how much Daddy's money paved the way for their own success at the polls...
...Finally, although this book refers to the vice presidency in its title, and an assessment of Rockefeller's performance in this office is in order, the authors only devote 14 pages to this aspect of his career...
...Understandably, in democratic politics office-seekers must perform some footwork to win an election in a mixed constituency...
...During his Albany years, Rockefeller owned the State GOP and, as the authors note, practically incorporated the Democratic Party...
...Bernard Bergman and other influence peddlers in that industry waltzed through the executive offices...
...What does his indulgence in art-Japanese art in particular-say about the man...
...If one seeks the central clue to Rockefeller's political failings it is therefore the "can do" attitude which grew out of the moral confidence that super wealth brought...
...Basically, the book is a paste-up job, rich in secondary sources but woefully short on analysis...
...Ever since his youth, the dream of the White House was paramount...
...Regrettably, the Kramer and Roberts treatment falls seriously short of making this contribution...
...If any clue to Rockefeller's motivations can be found, it is in the example of his grandfather, the original John D. Rockefeller...
...But at least he would have gained a more enduring place in history than as one of Delancey Street's most inveterate knish eaters...
...He could bring himself down to anybody's level...
...How did Rockefeller accept being elbowed out of the foreign policy decision process by Kissinger during the Ford administration...
...A good mind, attractive looks and a forceful, engaging personality were his native assets...
...Although Rockefeller considered himself to be more motivated by the "substance" rather than the form of politics, in reality his stands were not determined by the yardstick of substantive consistency...
...Kramer and Roberts present a telling incident of this mentality: It was a classic scene...
...For example, New York State Republican leader Joseph Carlino, "He (Rockefeller) was a born diplomat...
...Rockefeller's commitment to honesty in government was proven hollow by the ease in which nursing home czar Dr...
...Since the political act invariably involves money, a politician's insensitiv-ity to what money means to his constituents naturally affects the relationship between the two, Rockefeller's great wealth insulated him from the ordinary concerns of the public, plus enabled him to excuse his own mistakes much more readily than those of other mortals...
...For a politician on the scene as long as Rockefeller, his legacy consisted essentially of monuments of mortar (such as the Albany Mall), monuments which subsequently proved to be largely responsible for the financial plight of New York State and New York City...
...Moreover, the wealth blinded Rockefeller to a balanced acceptance of defeat, a factor responsible for his numerous tries for the White House...
...This surfaced, for instance, during Rockefeller's controversial confirmation hearings for the vice presidency in 1974...
...You can put anything on his table and if the mood of the times calls for it, he'll eat it and digest it...
...Even in a book as unsystematic in its organization as this one can't avoid noticing how characteristically Rockefeller flip-flopped from one side of an issue to its opposite, whether in his views of the Cold War, the need for welfare payments, or in his appraisal of fellow politicians such as his arch rival Nixon ("He's a moderate and I'm a moderate") and Ronald Reagan ("There is no ideological gulf between us...
...What attracted Rockefeller to Kissinger...
...Secondly, there is nothing here about Rockefeller's relationship with Henry Kissinger, the latter's name cited only three times in the index...
...He's not a guy who's turned his back on principles...
...If anyone was destined in our time to mount the greasy pole, that man was Nelson Rockefeller...
...Such self-deception in the face of frequent ideological changes might have had dangerous consequences had Rockefeller ever attained the presidency...
...In the case of Rockefeller, it is clear that his being born into such incredible wealth shaped his political motives and expectations...
...Nelson Rockefeller's political role, rather than stemming from a sense of mission or even raw ambition, is better explainable by a sense of the obligation to participate...
...Such insensitivity was also responsible for millions of dollars Rockefeller gave his lieutenants as "loans" in an effort to evade the legal requirements of gift-giving to people on the public payroll...
...His bold statewide housing policy in the structure of the UDC (Urban Development Corporation) was based on the backdoor financing of "moral obligation" bonds, a borrowing trick similarly used by his political thorn in New York City, John Lindsay...
...Furthermore, the work lacks any themes or order...
...Bouncing back and forth from conventional ideology to conventional ideology, Rockefeller's strategy failed the test...
...Arthur Goldberg, the last of Rockefeller's vanquished Democratic opponents for the New York State governorship, appeared at the hearings concerning a hatchet job campaign biography of Goldberg allegedly commissioned by Nelson's brother Laurence as a business investment...
...But the panhandler was frozen in bewilderment...
...Why did he go into politics...
...Young Nelson took the oil baron for his hero...
...Most of the work instead focuses on his reign in Albany and his doomed presidential campaigns, material, it would appear, far less timely than his tenure as vice president...
...Rockefeller's divorce is, of course, mentioned but no insights are given as to why it came about or as to how Rockefeller, the perennial presidential contender, rationalized it away politically...
...But what separated Rockefeller from most other politicians in this regard was his unwavering confidence in his own integrity...
...One of the key factors in Rockefeller's longevity in Albany was the support he received from labor unions, particularly the construction unions as a result of his munificent construction schemes...
...In addition to the morass of economic cdntacts that he inherited, Rockefeller's indefatigability, toughness and use of threats and flattery contributed to his political longevity...
...Accordingly, the principal theme that a political biography of Rockefeller lends itself to is failed expectations-a failure stemming, to be sure, not from lack of nerve or inner doubt or self-absorption...
...His assumption that Mr...
...When one sums up Rockefeller's career, the overriding assessment must be that here was one of the skilled manipulators, one of the genuine power brokers of our time...
...How did he adjust to defeat upon defeat in his quest for the presidency...
...An analysis of political failure on the scale of Rockefeller's would add significantly to current political discussion...
...This would appear to be the central question of Rockefeller's career...
...While "I Never Wanted to Be Vice-President of Any-thingl" is billed as an "investigative biography," not only does it avoid taking up these questions, but it adds no real new information to those who have carefully followed Rockefeller's career in the press...
...What type of sibling rivalry existed between Rockefeller and his powerful family (Nelson was the third child and second son...
...On the one hand the crusty tycoon made it as one of the premier robber barons, while on the other he is also remembered for his philanthropy and loyalty to religion...
...From this standpoint, one can more easily appreciate the glib tributes that this son of the Republican Eastern Establishment gave to rivals (Barry Goldwater: "A man of high integrity and experience") and how carelessly in 1976 he accused Senator Henry Jackson-probably the Cold Warrior par excellence-of harboring Communists on his staff until Rockefeller himself was threatened by censure by the Senate...
...To as competitive a player as he, the success of Ford, Nixon and Johnson in going the full route-politicians whom he no doubt ranks as inferiors-marks the ultimate disappointment...
...Previously the incensed Goldberg charged that the book was so scurrilous that it made his brother-in-law vomit...
...What was Rockefeller's view of Kissinger's now discredited detente policy...
...yet it continually eluded him...
...John D. Rockefeller's life was governed by a dialectic similar to that of Nelson's...
...A tax cut...
...They have no reason to learn...
...An Investigative Biography of Nelson Rockefeller MICHAEL KRAMER & SAM ROBERTS Basic Books, $12.50 The ready wink, quick smile, buoyant stride and rhythmic "Hiya fella" backslapping mask of one of the great personal failures of modern American politics...
...Of course, the shortcoming which stems from this model of political participation is that noblesse oblige frees one from meeting the requirements of depth and consistency to which other politicians are normally held...
...The sensitive rich probably wonder at times whether their social popularity would be as great were they to be wiped out financially tomorrow...
...Both as campaigner and office holder he had the charisma and energy to bring out the best in people...
...carefully culled these sources to put together many pithy, revealing quotes by and about Rockefeller...
...And the "revolutionaries" whom Rockefeller accused of leading the insurrection at Attica were found by the McKay Commission to represent instead, "a new breed of younger, more aware inmates, largely black . . . unwilling to accept the petty humiliations and racism that characterize prison life...
...While this book in its scattered instead of targeted fashion takes up these events, three major aspects of Rockefeller's career are hardly treated or not treated at all...
...Added to these were the wealth and contacts which only the privileged Rockefeller was able to draw on...
...En route to a rally near Macy's in Herald Square, Rockefeller was confronted by a panhandler...
...The best that could be said for the authors is that they (or their research assistants...
...They exchanged a few words, and then the governor ebulliently backslapped his way down the block...
...They happen to be of different parties and make slightly different appeals to people...
...That's funny," he muttered to a passerby "I asked him for a handout, and you know what he promised me...
...Rockefeller's frustrated career raises many intriguing questions: What were the psychological factors which made him tick...
...Why was Rockefeller always vice president of everything, something he never really wanted to be...
...Rockefeller comparing George Wallace with Gerald Ford, "They are both dedicated Americans who believe in the basic values of this country, distinguished citizens and good friends of mine...
...Its 34 chapters, largely anecdotal, lead nowhere...
...Once he left for Washington and hard times forced tighter accountability in the state, the tenuous underpinning of Rockefeller's service was revealed...
...The do-gooder, rather than the issue implementer, was the role which energized Rockefeller...
...They cannot believe themselves capable of anything discreditable, and as a rule they know almost nothing about money or political reality...
...In short, given Rockefeller's considerable advantages, what fatal flaw stood in the way of the presidency...
Vol. 103 • August 1976 • No. 18
