Word: agnew
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...Spiro] Agnew was the Joey Buttafuoco of the Nixon administration...
...disgrace. This portrayal is a ludicrous misrepresentation of a man who actually attempted to impose his own brand of vicious and venal fascism on America. Yet, partially due to such revisionism, Nixon is almost certain to fare better in the historical record than his first vice president Spiro Agnew, who died two weeks...
...Agnew's death was truly mourned only by a few stalwart friends and defenders. William Safire, one of his former speechwriters, in a desperate revisionist effort even sought to excuse one of Agnew's racist comments ("What's the matter with that fat Jap?", directed towards a dozing Japanese-American journalist). Agnew's onetime campaign press secretary, Victor Gold, declared in what must have been a fit of hysteria that "Spiro Agnew was the John the Baptist for [the Reagan] revolution...
However, most of the eulogizers were not very kind to Agnew. They focused on his race-baiting as Governor of Maryland, his attacks on the press and his resignation after an investigation on charges of bribery and tax evasion...
Unlike Nixon, Agnew was not granted tragic hero status, primarily because he had nowhere to fall from. Although Agnew had rapidly risen from obscurity to national prominence like Nixon, his ascent was never considered a mark of political acumen or leadership skill. In fact, his selection as Nixon's running mate has been primarily attributed to his bitter outburst at Baltimore's black leaders and to the machinations of South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. In his outburst, Agnew blamed Stokely Carmichael's presence in Baltimore for the riots in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Such lunacy...