Word: democratics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Dwight Eisenhower installed Martin Durkin, head of the plumbers' union, as Secretary of Labor in 1953 partly as a gesture to his blue-collar backers. John Kennedy brought in Douglas Dillon for the Treasury because Dillon was a pillar of the New York financial community, which habitually mistrusts Democratic hands in the national till. Neither of those appointments, however, was quite the bombshell that Richard Nixon exploded last week when he strode to the lectern in the White House press-briefing room and announced that John Connally-conservative Democrat, Lyndon Johnson protégé, former Governor of Texas...
...disliked Washington when he was John Kennedy's Secretary of the Navy in the early 1960s; he refused Nixon's offer to head either Defense or Treasury when Nixon was Cabinet building after the 1968 election. Why, then, would John Connally, a proud man and a powerful Democrat, now decide to sit in Richard Nixon's Cabinet-unless there was more in it for him than met the eye? There was speculation that the President is positioning Connally as a possible replacement for Spiro Agnew in 1972. So far, that is nothing more than guesswork. Besides, such...
Dirty Mind. Why Nixon wanted him is more obvious. The most patent reason: with the Democrats already touting the state of the economy as their likeliest issue for 1972, Nixon aimed to defuse that by putting a well-known, if scarcely liberal Democrat into his Administration's economic front office. But Connally personally may have nothing to lose. Says a close friend: "John knows the economy can't get much worse. He has nowhere to go but up. If the situation improves, he can get the lion's share of the credit. It is a situation that...
...happy with the reduction in the oil depletion allowance that Nixon supported as President, nor do they like his opening the door to increased oil imports from foreign producers. What is more, Texas-always a key state politically-is vital to Nixon's strategy for 1972. Connally helped Democrat Lloyd Bentsen win a Senate seat this year from Nixon's hand-picked candidate, Representative George Bush. Nixon failed to carry Texas in either 1960 or 1968; the state's 26 electoral votes could be the difference between winning and losing in 1972. By luring Connally to Washington...
Pique at the Ranch. Before Nixon announced the Connally appointment, he informed Lyndon Johnson by telephone of his choice. Nixon thought that Johnson would be pleased. Not likely. Johnson, still no slouch as a Democratic politician, was furious. Part of it was pique that Connally had not consulted him about taking the job. More important, like many other Democrats, Johnson felt that the last thing any Democrat should do right now is identify the party with Nixon's economics. Says one Texan who knows both Johnson and Connally well: "The President [Johnson] feels that Nixon could...