Haldeman & Connally on Republican National Committee and George H. W. Bush

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Governor Connolly.

Thank you.

Hello.

Sir Roberts.

Hello, Governor.

How are you?

I'm fine.

How are you?

Okay.

I wanted to give you a quick report on the Republican National Committee.

Good.

The chairman... Yeah, wait just one second.

Sir.

You're not sure.

All right.

Hello.

Go ahead.

I'm sorry, sir.

The chairman just met with the president and is going out to tell the press that he has decided and recommended to the president he should withdraw as chairman and concentrate on running for.

reelection as a senator in Kansas, et cetera, and that he and the president both agreed.

And then the chairman did some sounding about the party around the country in the last few weeks and then has reported back to the president today that

The man they both felt would be the ideal man to head the committee would be George Bush, and that they confirmed by phone with George Bush this morning that he would be willing to accept the post if the committee elected him to it at its meeting on January 19th.

And that's where that's at.

That's great.

So you all may have a Texas chairman, but so do we.

Well, I'll be goddamn in that something.

That is rather unusual.

So, anywho, that's the route that we'll go on that.

And George, of course, will be a superb chairman.

Yes, he will.

Full-time guy.

I sure as hell think he will.

And so that'll be a good move for us, I believe.

Yeah, no question about it.

And I wanted you to know that before the reports got out.

Oh, sure.

Just curious as to your reaction now that...

But your thing went full cycle on the Democratic Committee.

Well, I talked to—I'm frankly so mad as hell at Strauss.

I thought his goddamn appearance yesterday—I didn't see it, but I heard about it, and I saw the reports in the paper yesterday.

And I thought his remarks on Meek Press were ill-advised.

And going out of his way, it looked to me like, take a cut at me.

And I told him so.

And I said, by God, you quit talking about my business.

I said, I'm prepared to talk about my business.

And if y'all want to read me out of the party, go on and do it.

But let's do it with a formal vote.

And I said, if it's a sin...

to vote against that son of a bitch McGovern, I'm sure y'all will want to set up some moral standards for other crimes that are committed by people in the Democratic Party.

And I said, some of them are guilty of crimes against society, but I assume those don't bother you a goddamn bit.

And so anyway, he's—

I was pretty rough on him, and he's very much disturbed about it and called me back and so forth and so on.

But I am pissed off about it, and I don't mind saying so.

And I just think— It was sort of beyond the realm of necessity.

Well, it got down to business.

If he wants to say—if he wants to say—

Yeah, if they want to censor everybody, then I think John Connolly ought to head the list.

That's fine.

If they want to censor everybody who voted for the president against McGovern, I think that's a legitimate statement.

He did say that.

He did say that, and I think that's fine.

I have no argument with that.

If they want to censor everybody, and I wish they would, and I ask him to, and I may publicly ask him to.

I may publicly say, well, I think they reflect an attitude that...

In spite of the fact that their candidate this year was a strong Henry Wallace man, 48.

Once he's conventioned, they apparently don't worry about that, but they want to censor everybody voting for the president next time.

I invite them to do so.

I think you ought to.

I'd be willing to be censored by them.

I think that's fine.

And I told him so last night.

I don't know.

I don't think it's going to change a goddamn thing.

I think he's... Looks like he made a lot of deals, doesn't it?

Well, I'm sure he made some, but I don't know what they are.

And he didn't...

the main thing he's just going to be there and i think they're going to be trying to crucify him now all these liberals are and that's fine and he but he'll be trading and swapping and and he's he brings no strength to the party you see all he can do is kind of be a professional manager so to speak he won't you don't think he'll bring the south back in oh hell no he can't bring him back i don't think he can yeah uh

Frankly, the leader of the South today, in the absence of any other activities, is George Wallace.

And I don't know what the hell George will do, but he can't.

These southern governors are going to obviously try to keep the party together because that's their future, and there's no question about that.

All these southern senators and congressmen and everybody else are going to try to keep the party together until they're prepared to officially leave it because that's their backbone.

Does that argue for the thing we were talking about the other day?

Sure.

Does that argue for what we were talking about the other day?

Yeah.

to set up something that they can leave it for?

Yeah, sure it does.

But I think there has to be a compelling motivation for them to leave it.

The hell of it is, they can't leave it and go to a void.

They've got to go do something.

They've got to have

uh they've got to have some immediate understandable goal to to achieve or to go toward yeah and it can't be something that's nebulous it can't be in the third party type of operation i i don't i don't think it can i uh i really think it has to be more than that so i don't uh theoretically uh i think they'd do it in a minute but uh

I don't practically know how in the head you're going to get them to do it.

Maybe we can, but I think it's going to take some overt, precipitous move, either on the part of the Republicans or, in a negative sense, on the part of the Democrats to get them to do it.

Because they laid back, they were neutral, or this year on a McGovern, but they still didn't quit, you see.

That's the problem that you have.

Figure out what that could be, then.

Well, I don't know, and I think we'll just have to wait and see.

I just don't know what the hell it will be.

To get personal a minute, I don't think my joining the Republican Party would trigger it.

I don't think that would do it.

I don't think that would be enough of an incident to convince these congressmen to do it.

I think it has to be something more than that, and I don't know what it's going to be.

And it'll just have to be an event that'll occur.

Timing is not now.

I don't see it right now.

Right.

Okay.

What's your situation on your trip?

I'm going to go on the—I'm going to leave here on the 15th, and I'm going to be in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the 17th—16th and 17th—no, the 17th and the 18th.

And then I'll be back on the 20th or 21st.

But I am going.

Okay, you want us to do anything?

Yeah, if you will, just get word to the king that I'm going to be there.

And he knows that I'm going to accept his invitation.

But if you can get some word over there, I think it would be damn helpful.

If for any reason you want me to go over to Iran, I have no particular reason for going.

But if you all think any purpose can be served by it, well, let me know and I'll go.

Okay.

Okay, very good.

Okay?

Yes, sir.

I'll talk to you later.

All right.

Thanks, John.

Haldeman & Connally on Republican National Committee and George H. W. Bush

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on December 11, 1972

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