Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 012-098
Date: Friday, October 22, 1971 at 10:00 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Lewis, Hobart D.
Recording device: White House Telephone
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/012-098

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello.
[0:08] Mr. Hobart Lewis, sir.
[0:14] There you are.
[0:16] Hello, Hobart.
[0:20] Mr. President.
[0:21] How'd you like the way we fooled the press and the court?
[0:22] Godfully glorious.
[0:22] You let them down the garden path that time.
[0:23] I thought we'd give them a little surprise.
[0:24] Well, that was just tremendous.
[0:24] And your performance, Mr. Stanley, was just about the best I ever saw.
[0:26] I thought your speech, the way you presented it, was just magnificent.
[0:28] This one, of course, as you can imagine, I had to do all by myself.
[0:35] You did absolutely the whole thing by yourself.
[0:37] And I think the appointments are right, too.
[0:38] Well, they're true conservatives, you know.
[0:40] And we're going to get them through.
[0:42] I don't think you'll have any difficulty, will you?
[0:45] No, no.
[0:45] Well, they'll have some.
[0:46] Sure, they'll squeal around.
[0:47] But they talk so much about excellence.
[0:49] And then we got them bitching about others because they weren't excellent.
[0:53] And then we put in a couple of excellents who were conservatives.
[0:55] That was it.
[0:56] And now they're really stuck with him.
[1:04] It's just great.
[1:04] Absolutely thrilling.
[1:05] And Louis Powell is about the finest man in the world, too.
[1:07] He's a great fellow.
[1:07] And Lundqvist, you don't know, but he's a brilliant man and just as conservative as he can be.
[1:14] You know, it's thrilling.
[1:15] You've got four good men, and I guess Potter Stewart's good.
[1:16] Potter Stewart on a swing boat will be fine.
[1:19] Yeah, you've got five.
[1:20] Five, that's right.
[1:21] At least we've got a start.
[1:24] We're getting a start, Mr. President, on this...
[1:25] What do I call it?
[1:36] Good.
[1:38] Good.
[1:39] That's just great.
[1:41] Great.
[1:43] Well, it was good to see you last week.
[1:46] Well, we enjoyed it.
[1:46] Okay.
[1:47] Bye.
[1:47] Bye.