Word: agnew
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...speech last October. He has since blasted away at "the whole damn zoo" of young radicals, scoffed at "tomentose exhibitionists who provoke more derision than fear," damned "the didactic inadequacies of the garrulous" and proclaimed that "abetting the merchants of hate are the parasites of passion." Vice President Spiro Agnew concedes that there are hazards in using "intemperate language," but he insists: "If you can get your thought through to the people, it can be worth the risk...
There is no doubt that Agnew has got his thoughts through to the people, but last week his quotient of pithies and pungents was notably lowered. In Detroit he condemned as "emotionaries" those who espouse hysterical dissent, but found reasonable disagreement to be a national necessity. In Washington he renewed his charges of antiwar bias against some major newspapers and TV networks, but defended the freedom of the press, asserting that "Government and the press are natural adversaries." He also argued for a lowering of the voting age to 18. Said Agnew: "I believe that once our young people...
...Blue. Though his speech-making about youth was conciliatory, a more casual remark about one young American was not. The lone student on President Nixon's new commission on campus disorder, Joseph Rhodes Jr., 22, a junior fellow at Harvard, set Agnew off like a fire bomb. Talking to a New York Times reporter, Rhodes wondered "if the President's and Vice President's statements are killing people." Agnew read the interview and demanded Rhodes' resignation. Rhodes, he said, has "a transparent bias that will make him counterproductive to the work of the commission...
...Vice President's broadside took Nixon by surprise-it came "right out of the blue," said an aide. But the President simply had Press Secretary Ronald Ziegler explain to reporters that Agnew was speaking for himself, that Rhodes would not be replaced because the President wanted "a wide range of views" represented on the commission. Later, outgoing HEW Secretary Robert Finch who joined Nixon's White House staff, observed that the incident only served to strengthen the commission. Said Finch: "It might perhaps have given it more legitimacy and visibility than it had before...
Common Humanity. Not all speakers appealed to understanding and common sense. Borrowing Spiro Agnew's argot, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine took potshots at "Potland," which he said is waging "hysterical warfare" against "Squareland." Speaking at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Paine proposed a hypothetical Cabinet for the country, including Timothy Leary (Secretary of Agriculture), Jane Fonda (Interior), Arlo Guthrie (H.E.W.), Ralph Nader (Commerce) and Bobby Scale (Attorney General). Paine asserted that Potlanders were heavily dependent on "foreign aid" from Squareland. His words were generally ill-received. "The speech had one thing going for it," said a Worcester administrator...