Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 228-006
Date: Monday, November 20, 1972 at 2:05 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Colson, Charles W.
Recording device: Camp David Hard Wire
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/228-006

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 Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:00] Hello?
[0:04] I'm getting here in between a fight and I just wondered if you had any, uh, at that latest count yet?
[0:15] I'll be denied anyway.
[0:17] Why?
[0:17] In fact, there's no one ready to count.
[0:21] You gotta check, let us just check and know, check back and forth.
[0:26] Some of them not in yet, aren't that true?
[0:28] We've got until December.
[0:29] I heard a report on the Brennan thing.
[0:36] It isn't him.
[0:38] I'm wondering about Ben's young.
[0:41] I hope he would pay me on this.
[0:43] How about Paul Hall?
[0:48] Yes, sir.
[0:48] Yes, sir.
[0:49] Well, hell yes.
[0:52] I put one in transportation, Assistant Secretary.
[0:56] We're looking for a good transportation man for Teamster and Freeman.
[1:07] Man, this would be terrific.
[1:09] You tell him we'd love to have him, and so he lets us know, and you call fix it.
[1:13] The president is looking for a man at the assistant secretary level for Teamster.
[1:15] And if they prove themselves out, they go up from there.
[1:20] That's the way the president does it.
[1:24] We're just waiting.
[1:24] We're around 61.
[1:27] Is that it?
[1:34] The UPI is more updated.
[1:44] It must be if it's kind of 61.
[1:53] The UPI is a 61 one.
[1:53] That's so far apart, Chuck, that the one must be taken after the other.
[1:55] Oh, it's a much earlier account.
[1:56] Sure is it?
[1:57] I figured it's much higher than that, at 48.
[2:09] But it was earlier, it was 61.3 or 4 or something like that.
[2:14] But that was based on just a conglomeration on that time.
[2:21] Those UBI's have great teeth.
[2:22] They have, it's all they do.
[2:23] I'm always asked, is this, do we have teeth?
[2:24] That's right, you do that and bring it up.
[2:26] Let me ask you, on the Meany proposition, I guess there isn't anything we can do on that.
[2:34] The last talk Schultz said, you wouldn't think that Meany would be against Brennan, would you?
[2:42] 100% we ought to do.
[2:46] All right.
[2:46] Well, my view is, let's talk tonight about it, and tomorrow you can talk to Brennan.
[2:51] Because, you see, I want you to make the call
[2:54] So that he knows he's got a damn job.
[3:05] See, that's the thing.
[3:06] We're all sort of doing the same thing.
[3:13] See, that's the way it is.
[3:13] We're a fighting man being.
[3:14] Right?
[3:14] Right.
[3:14] I'd love to have it.
[3:15] It's a curse.
[3:17] I'd love to have it.
[3:19] What else has developed politically over the weekend, Haynes?
[3:41] Much you know about?
[3:44] Now they're talking about Muskie's, Jay Muskie will step down, won't you?
[3:57] You know, this fellow's still on the left, the guy from Oregon.
[4:07] What if we get south?
[4:08] You know, we can't get anybody from the north.
[4:09] You know, we can't take Massachusetts.
[4:10] You can't take New York if you have nobody competent.
[4:12] And I must say, we don't have any candidates at all.
[4:13] We have to go up.
[4:13] We can't get on that now.
[4:15] What do you get in the White House?
[4:32] Territory someplace, right?
[4:38] We could do that.
[4:40] It's not even far and closer than our political empire.
[4:45] If you want to get employed in the White House, that would be the wrong signal.
[5:01] That would be the answer.
[5:02] If George Bush is taken, I don't think he would satisfy a lot of things.
[5:05] He's Texas.
[5:06] He's new.
[5:06] He ought to, you know, relatively speaking.
[5:07] He'll do what we say.
[5:08] You know, I really think this crap about...
[5:13] The president is not helping the Republicans get elected, so we're at this point, and I guess to put something that stirs the country up, I don't know.
[5:32] John Collins, he says, he says, he says, if I campaigned more for it, if we didn't fight a lot, I wouldn't have won by as much, and they would have lost more.
[5:35] Remember the thing you were talking about yesterday, that all this bitching around, it will pose problems in dealing with the Congress.
[5:38] But on the other hand, they hurt me problems anyway, curiously enough.
[5:42] It doesn't make any difference how much you owe them.
[5:44] Very few of them are loyalists.
[5:46] They consult their interests, don't they?
[5:52] Sure.
[5:52] Put our money in.
[5:53] But I went out there.
[5:54] I went in.
[5:55] It's an April 1 buyout, as I recall.
[5:58] Years ago.
[5:59] Before we got his opponents out.
[6:01] 66 plus.
[6:04] 66 to 68.
[6:07] 68, that's right, but I worked on that thing.
[6:35] The diet is coming, you better watch out for it.
[6:36] I was just serving in the club, wasn't he?
[6:38] But they really can't figure that we didn't do everything we could for Cato.
[6:42] For Christ's sakes, if I had gone to Delaware, I wouldn't have changed it.
[6:46] He just had a damn good young candidate run against him.
[6:48] In this case, I think of people that know Gordon well.
[6:52] This idea of Dominic, that Alec made some tough votes for the president.
[6:58] For Christ's sakes, if he was all that much to the president, why didn't you do it?
[7:01] Run as well as the president.
[7:06] I spoke to Haldeman earlier and I said to him, Webster's the man, that we've got it true.
[7:20] That we can confirm him.
[7:21] The other thing, are you sure you will program him, Chairman?
[7:23] Will he get in there?
[7:27] Yes.
[7:27] All right.
[7:28] You're responsible for him, I understand.
[7:30] I don't want him to get in there and act like Walters and make Mitchell become Walters.
[7:36] You know, we've got Richardson lined up now.
[7:57] This is Floyd.
[7:58] It's going to be Richardson going to defense.
[7:59] Terry, who's a great man in protection, has been strong, which will be a good affair.
[8:00] Weinberger's going to go to the league.
[8:01] She's going to get him.
[8:02] And put Roy Ash in Weinberger's place.
[8:02] Now, that's going to be, that triple play, I think, is a beauty, I'm sure.
[8:04] Some people think Richardson's a dove, but I'll give it to you later.
[8:06] We'll see you tonight.