The Word From Washington
The Word from Washington Will he or won't he? Will President Nixon retain Spiro Agnew as his run- ning-mate in 1972, or will he dump him in favor of some more palat- able Vice Presidential...
...But back to the power of prayer...
...Perhaps the State De- partment will be able to devise some sort of "two-Schmitz policy" for Or- ange County, California...
...The Council, he says, "will allow business- men to communicate regularly with the President, the Office of Consumer Affairs, the Federal Trade Commis- sion, the Justice Department, other Government agencies as appropriate, and private organizations which are directly concerned with consumer affairs...
...What with one thing and another, we have just gotten around to reading General Bruce K. Holloway's splendid proposal for a "national information program" to be broadcast on radio and television, courtesy of your Friendly Federal Government...
...With varying degrees of enthusiasm, Repub- licans are contemplating the possibility that Treasury Secretary John Connal- ly, California Governor Ronald Rea- gan, or New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller may grace their ticket in 1972...
...More about that in a moment...
...Wow...
...The House responded manfully, overriding the lonely objection of Rep- resentative H. R. Gross, Iowa Repub- lican, who said he did not understand "this sudden burst of speed to make life more comfortable for all the mem- bers of the House...
...The odds on Agnew's survival as Number Two certainly seem to have dropped precipitously since his famous international golf tour...
...Nix- on's China venture, and that even Bill Buckley's Senatorial brother, James, had refused to join the right-wing re- volt...
...His denunciations of the American press ("too ready to assist the North Vietnamese by their emphasis on what's taking place"), seemed so right when they were deliv- ered in Denver or Des Moines, but they sounded just plain silly when they were datelined Singapore or Nairobi...
...In Mr...
...Presidential aides and professional Republicans pointed out that such eminent conservatives as Governor Reagan and Senator Barry M. Goldwater had endorsed Mr...
...We know some most unlikely citizens— men and women who are neither par- ticularly devout nor particularly fond of Mr...
...Henceforth, decisions on such touchy matters as Congressmen's staff payrolls, free trips home, allowances for telephone calls, stationery and post- age, and rental of home district office space will be made discreetly and with dispatch by the House Administration Committee...
...Columnist Clayton Fritchey, citing the prediction of an "extraordinarily well-informed Repub- lican," comes up with this alarming scenario: "Agnew will be named to fill the next vacancy on the Supreme Court as a dignified and acceptable way of dropping him from the GOP Presidential ticket next year...
...Even some of the Vice President's admirers seem to have been turned off by his antics abroad...
...Nix- on's announcement that he would go to China, a dozen or so Neanderthal conservatives led by William F. Buck- ley Jr., the eminent practical joker and editor of National Review, announced they would "suspend" their support of the President pending revision of his foreign and military policies...
...With Con- gress in recess until after Labor Day, with the moon again reduced to zero population, with the President's China trip still some months off, with the Pentagon Papers rapidly fading into history, what else is there to talk about...
...We think Mr...
...move to re-establish relations with one great power than it runs into trouble with another...
...Will President Nixon retain Spiro Agnew as his run- ning-mate in 1972, or will he dump him in favor of some more palat- able Vice Presidential candidate...
...The House of Representatives, ever eager to expedite the conduct of the public's business, has voted to relieve its members of the tedious and time- consuming chore of voting on their special allowances, benefits, and per- quisites...
...No one has mentioned Harold Stassen yet, but someone surely will...
...So it goes...
...After an apparently reassuring White House session with Mr...
...To give the program "impact," General Holloway elaborated, it could be spiced up with occasional disclo- sures of classified information...
...Its membership consists of eighty business- men, including many generous contrib- utors to the Republican Party and sev- eral whose firms have run afoul of the National Commission on Product Safe- ty, the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and other consumer protective agencies...
...General Hollo- way, the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Air Command, advanced his ingenious plan last March in a closed session of a House Appropriations sub- committee, but the transcript was made public only a few weeks ago...
...It has something to do, as we understand it, with the safety of the Republic and the line of Presiden- tial succession...
...No sooner does the U.S...
...The Democrat- ic National Committee, which takes an understandably partisan interest in these things, proclaims that "Spiro is through in '72...
...Some disillusioned conservatives will be harder to pacify than Senator Buck- ley...
...For sheer, breathtaking chutzpah, it will be hard to match President Nix- on's new National Business Council for Consumer Affairs, an advisory body which the President appointed last month to "work closely" with the Gov- ernment on consumer problems...
...His publicly professed preference for African kings and colonels over American black lead- ers "who spend their time in querulous complaint and constant recriminations against the rest of society" was—well, embarrassing...
...To be sure, the rumblings from the right did not exactly send the White House into a panic...
...Was it Nikita Khrushchev who used to talk about setting a goat to guard the cabbage patch...
...Gross understood...
...And so did we...
...One thing that would be as valu- able as anything I could think of right now today for the American people and the security of the country is a national information program, such as maybe every week a half-hour pro- gram that would treat of some critical problem of the country, starting out with defense issues...
...The President's own Congressman, Representative John G. Schmitz, Cal- ifornia Republican, has put the House on formal notice that he has "disestab- lished relations with the White House as long as they pursue their suicidal policy of surrendering to international Communism as exemplified by the President's announced trip to meet with our sworn enemy, the Communist rulers of mainland China...
...The format would also provide for "entertainment...
...Nonetheless, he still feels the nation is on a danger- ous "anti-military binge...
...Is he simply blind to the public's interest...
...Nixon believes in the power of prayer...
...Nixon—who offer fervent prayer each morning, noon, and night for the health of the President of the United States...
...We have no special insight into the President's intentions toward the man they used to call "Nixon's Nixon," but we suspect his ultimate decision will depend in large measure on the extent to which Mr...
...Nixon values the power of prayer, he'll certainly keep Agnew on the team...
...Nixon's view, however, the members of his new Council represent "the resolve of American business to take a leading role in assuring equity in the American market place...
...You read it here first...
...Repre- sentative John E. Moss, the California Democrat who heads the Commerce subcommittee with jurisdiction over consumer legislation, found it "incred- ible" that the President "should for- mally establish an agency which will further blunt existing feeble consumer protection efforts...
...The Word from Washington Will he or won't he...
...If Mr...
...potomacus...
...In case you missed it too, here it is: "One of the things that has bugged me," General Holloway told the Con- gressmen, "is the vast amount of infor- mation over television and other in- stant news media that, one way or an- other, in my judgment, is a disservice to the security of the country...
...At least he says that's how he feels, but you never can tell when the Buckleys are kidding...
...Following Mr...
...For some reason, the Consumer Fed- eration of America is unappreciative of the President's latest boost for con- sumerism...
...Nixon, from which he emerged with a fistful of Presidential fountain pens, Senator Buckley announced his abiding faith in the Nixon-Agnew team...
...the Federation asked in a memorandum to its 194 member organizations...
...Ml Perhaps even more persuasive than the power of prayer as an argument for keeping Spiro Agnew aboard the Ship of State is the President's need to placate the restive and even rebellious forces on the right...
...The fundamental reason for this," explained Representative Frank Thompson Jr., New Jersey Democrat, "is to spare the House the time con- sumed each session in considering . . . every bit of minutia with respect to the routine daily operations of the House...
...The question may not go down in the books as one of the most momentous of our time, but it seems to have an obsessive grip on this sultry Capital...
...And to give it "authenticity," he added, "you would have to have the President start- ing it off with a thirty-second introduc- tion...
...We can hardly wait...
...Is he attempt- ing to inject so much more business influence in the Federal Government that consumers will be stripped of even present inadequate defenses...
...His dismay at publication of the Penta- gon Papers appeared curiously out of place in Addis Ababa...
...Representative Joe D. Wag- oner, Louisiana Democrat, called on his colleagues to "face up to this thing like men," and Representative Wayne L. Hays, Ohio Democrat, said it was a matter of "whether or not we are go- ing to do a modest amount for ourselves...
Vol. 35 • September 1971 • No. 9
