Word: agnew
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Ford ended three days of frenetic speculation that all but paralyzed Washington with rumor and anticipation. It also culminated a notable Nixon effort to give Republicans at least the illusion of participation in the first replacement of a Vice President in the nation's history. No sooner had Agnew delivered his letters of resignation (see following story) than the President launched a nationwide canvass of party sentiment for a successor. One of the first persons he called into the Oval Office was Counsellor Anne Armstrong. "He asked me to get on the phone and sound out opinion all around...
Window Dressing. Some Republicans felt that the mass solicitation of views was only window dressing. They recalled that he went through a similar exercise at the 1968 Republican National Convention when he had already decided on Agnew as his running mate. Nonetheless, by the deadline hundreds of suggestions had poured into the White House to be tabulated by Miss Woods. Nixon flew with the assembled list aboard Marine One, his personal helicopter, to the mountaintop solitude of Camp David. There he dined alone in Aspen Lodge and, by the time he went to bed at 11:30 p.m., had winnowed...
...Nixon, arms uplifted in triumph and a roar of approval from the audience -members of Congress, presidential aides and representatives from the diplomatic corps (the Supreme Court Justices decided that their presence would be improper and declined to attend). It was an oddly exuberant happening, considering its origin in Agnew's tragedy, and some Republicans considered the performance vulgar. Said Oregon Governor Tom McCall: "It looked like a hoedown, a shivaree." In the Blue Room after the announcement, while guests bear-hugged Jerry and kissed Betty Ford, Nixon chatted enthusiastically with those in the receiving line...
That was impossible: Ford was not yet accustomed to his new status. Congratulatory telephone calls poured in, including one from former Vice President Agnew, who offered his "affection and best wishes." One telephone was tied up-Ford's wildly excited teen-age daughter, Susan, who had bet her mother $5 that her father was Nixon's choice, was glued to it, telling friends about what had happened. "Tell her to get off the phone," Ford said to an aide. Then he thought for a moment and laughed. "Tell her the Vice President told her to get off. That...
After the long weeks of buildup, of insisting upon his innocence, of accusing Government officials of plotting his downfall, of vowing that he would fight to the end, the denouement of the Spiro Agnew debacle came with stunning swiftness. His hands trembling slightly and his Palm Springs tan bleached white with tension, Agnew walked into a Baltimore courtroom last week and admitted that he had falsified his income tax in 1967. When he emerged half an hour later, Agnew had been transformed from Vice President of the United States into a convicted felon...