Word: agnew
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Boob Tube. The Governors also complained about Agnew's campaign against the press, whose "columnists and commentators" he had labeled "ideological antagonists" the night before. Among those who pressed him on that point were Michigan's William Milliken, Delaware's Russell Peterson and New Jersey's William Cahill, who urged Agnew to abandon his "shotgun" attacks and adopt a more precisely targeted "rifleshot" approach...
...Agnew replied that by his reckoning, 80% of the media "are after me and the Republican Party." He was prepared with a sheaf of press clippings illustrating what he clearly thought was unfair and vituperative comment about him by the press. Many articles contained partisan statements made by Democratic National Chairman Lawrence O'Brien and other top Democrats, which Agnew argued had been accepted as fact by the papers that printed them. He was especially incensed by a front-page story in the previous day's New York Times reporting that a majority of Governors at Sun Valley...
...Agnew read McCall's reaction to his speech of the previous night to the group. Reagan told McCall that he was guilty of violating the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not criticize another Republican. Later, one Governor recalled that Agnew learned that not only newsmen can interpret his remarks in various ways. "Those were Republicans in there, all of them loyal to the party, and we had seven or eight different interpretations of his banquet talk. Agnew was really shaken. For McCall, it was a session of acute personal embarrassment. But if the Vice President learns to deal with...
...another matter, Agnew did promise relief. Faced with complaints that Republican Governors have trouble making their voices heard in the White House, the Vice President promised to spend more time serving as Nixon's intermediary in state-level politics. He was assigned that job by the President in February 1969, but has spent little time fulfilling its duties. Pledged Agnew: "We will strengthen our efforts at liaison...
Perhaps so, but Agnew is hardly taking himself off the banquet circuit. The very next day, in a speech in Akron to honor William H. Ayres, a Republican who was defeated in November after ten terms in Congress, Agnew opened Round No. 2 in the defense of his campaign role. He firmly disagreed with "the implication that the harsh thrust of partisan debate suddenly in 1970 no longer has a place in American politics," and declared that "division can be constructive...