Word: agnew
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Agnew's only constitutionally mandated job is presiding over the Senate, but his highly fragmented duties include heading the Space Council, the President's Council on Youth Opportunity, the Office of Intergovernmental Relations and the National Council on Indian Opportunity. White House business occupies up to 15 hours of his week?meetings of the National Security Council, the Cabinet, the Urban Affairs Council, the Environmental Quality Council, plus a weekly gathering of the Republican congressional leadership...
...Vice President is most influential with the President in dealing with state and local governments. Specifically assigned to coordinate the three levels of government, Agnew has established excellent communications with the Governors, although many mayors are unhappy with his efforts to channel federal funds to cities through the states. Still, Nixon listens to Agnew on domestic matters; the Vice President has traveled 77,091 miles in the U.S. since January, observing at each stop...
...Agnew witnesses the decision-making in such areas as Viet Nam or the ABM, but he does not really participate. Asked to name a major contribution the Vice President has made to policy, a White House adviser modified Ike's reply regarding Nixon: "If you give me ten minutes, I might think of something." Eisenhower said that he would need a week, and Agnew could thus be considered a considerable improvement. Nonetheless, the Vice President has complained to friends that he feels like an errand boy. Says one of his aides: "He misses the authority of a top executive. When...
...first Vice President in 24 years with no Senate experience, Agnew has not had an easy time on the Hill. In the early months after the Inauguration, he conscientiously courted Senators, attending each noon's opening of business, presiding in the chair to learn parliamentary procedures and school himself in Senate ways. He lunched with members in the Senators' dining room. Most important, he flattered Senators by his deference, thereby convincing them of his wit and discernment. He worked so hard at his homework during those first months that he burst a blood vessel...
Last summer, however, perhaps feeling overly buoyant about his good national press, Agnew began lobbying clumsily for Administration programs. He started with the ABM, buttonholing members on the Senate floor, then repeated the mistake in an attempt to get the income-tax surcharge extended for a year. As a wheeler-dealer, he failed ingloriously and provoked a curt civics lesson from Majority Leader Mike Mansfield: "A Vice President should not interfere in Senate affairs regardless of his party. He is not a member of the Senate. He's a half-creature of the Senate and a half-creature...