Nixon, Ehrlichman & Haldeman on Government reorganization

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Well, well.

Go ahead.

I was just going to say, come on, get Henry Ford the other day.

With a very good response.

Yeah.

and then that birthday party that the vice president threw for Bonnie Lasker, with all those two sheds, you know, up at the Madison.

And they were all there, and it was very interesting.

They're a very tight little crowd.

Well, you know, it's an interesting thing, too, though, that that is one point, though, where we did come out smelling like a rose.

I mean, it was a... We tended, of course, to get played at a time,

up a paper and you're there to read, you know.

And every time it's a little bit fresh because the market's at another level.

And it was in U.S. News again this last week.

Not yesterday, but a week ago.

And it just keeps bouncing along.

I think it really has a chance this time.

I think the liberals are going to have to be

Some of them are.

Mathias is, and a few of those guys.

Liberal Democrats, of course, are out on a partisan basis.

But that's the point.

Liberal Democrats will not.

So we're just on reorganization, quite a few of them.

Oddly enough.

You are working on it.

with that rather than just to go over and kick it around.

The other thing is I was going to say on Connolly, if you would, let's start with three things.

First, with Connolly, I want to make sure you might give him a talk.

We were chatting today.

If you'd like for him to call you whenever there's any question about one boy as president, it was really standing around here.

We cannot control Burns, but we can control the administration.

And Schultz now has the word, and McCracken has the word.

And if you'd like to police that,

is insisting on that, but he's got to let you know if there's any time that anybody's getting out of line.

Second point is that with regard to Holby, I talked to Paul a little more about it.

He said Mitchell may not have felt as strong as he might have felt.

I mean, you know, his talking to Martin will clear the way for me and the professor to get away from him one awkward time.

Well, that is not a first meeting.

It doesn't mean he was a speaker.

And it's true, we don't have a cabinet with any faulty speakers.

But, uh, I just, I just have a, I have many emotions about it.

My only feeling is that

I'm just not sure that it makes that much difference.

I hear that there are others that we can bring in.

I don't know, we could get a, is the Corps an Italian?

Sure.

Well, that means a lot.

And we've got a few Italians around, haven't we?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, we're picking up a few.

We've got a couple, I forget.

We had an Italian general counsel the other day.

And Daniel had an Italian ATW, if I missed you.

Seems to me you're a good suggestion, actually.

Thank you.

And so I think in terms of speaking at Rumsfeld, we'll probably in a way get more people for us than Boeke would be.

I would think so, yes.

On the other hand, we gotta realize that Boeke appeals to that blue collar guy on the way up.

Let me know what else we got in the field of the sticks.

Listen, we don't have to be silent now.

You and John, you and Bob, and at some point, wait a minute, you want to sit down and let's talk about this.

I'm sorry we can't get the guy that's head of the Farm Bureau.

Is he pretty good?

He's a great cattle man.

But you can't polarize the farm organizations that much.

But we may find somebody.

I think Rumsfeld would be pretty good running around the country as a cabin officer.

Do you think so?

I think so.

You know, in the city thing, he'd be damn good.

He's good with the suburbs.

Yeah.

Flip around through the suburbs.

He's always upbeat.

Yeah.

I think he's willing to throw a knife out.

Oh, sure.

Heck yes.

And he'd run a job well.

Yeah.

I know we couldn't commit to these guys because

The damn thing, from what I'm told, I had a guy on my staff do a little checking on it.

The thing is dangerous right now.

I mean, it's trying to develop them.

My opinion is that we're going to be a laughing stock.

We do.

This has got to be postponed.

There's a delay.

I must admit, I haven't taken any steps up to go take a pee.

I don't know.

I'll find out.

This is something that actually Peter has done on

you know, for what he knows about it, and get him back into it.

Now, the other, of course, thing that we're looking for is the guy in the Lincoln spot.

Yeah, the guy there down the talk on Ford policy.

I don't know who the hell would get him.

I wish we had a real fine, you know, ballsy guy who would go in there and take that spot.

That's for sure.

Yeah.

Only because it's in the NSC.

Well, it's also, you know, they have Christ Daniel in there.

And he did a hell of a job with the states and the cities.

Yeah?

And, uh... We don't have anybody on the seat who really... We put it over to an activist office.

An activist does it in its own way, but it's sort of on the back of his hand.

But they've got a big staff over there, and we just have to use that also.

good operative and an absolute minus in terms of getting it across the arch.

He's intellectually a very good man.

He's highly respected in some areas and we've got to find a place for him in order that, well, in other words, a place to move him to.

I think he wants to be retired.

He doesn't want to retire after this job.

Yeah, but, well, maybe we can pull this off.

I don't know.

I think we have to avoid the appearance of him being fired.

We talked about it.

He said it's a two-year deal.

And we'd like to make the change.

And Kissinger believes he can go.

Andy Goodfessler is with us and so forth.

He is respected.

He's a wonderful guy.

But he's not very damn good for our public health.

We've got to be on top of the whole operation.

I'd be glad to hear that.

No dispute about that.

It's just that China that we break in his leaving doesn't concern me.

But if he was here for two years, that's all it's at.

What do you want from her?

I just wondered if he's a, and it might, I want a guy to get out and fire a couple of bombs and defend against the Florida Colts.

I don't know who the captain is, that's a big one.

He'd run the job extremely well.

He deserves to get a job.

You know, he's putting through his budget now and so forth.

He deserves to get some.

Let's look around.

Nixon, Ehrlichman & Haldeman on Government reorganization

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on April 27, 1971

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