Conversation 508-019

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Threat Enhanced.

And was it right that he did it?

I think since the time he did, as far as I can determine, he didn't know anything.

But he's...

So he would never... Well, he would not have been trying to say something.

Because he would lie over the couch.

And it was just much better if he would do it his way.

Now he was... Everybody was just being good.

I am going to be talking to Tom Reed and Harley tomorrow and Monica and a number of these people.

Well, no, I have not.

And I want to talk to John.

Well, I had talked to him along this line, but they sent

But what I am concerned about, sir, is what John, I have made the suggestion that Reagan

Now, John takes the position rightfully that, well, he said, let's make Reagan honorary chairman of California.

And I think his staff will run for that, and they'll kill us.

And he said, and then we'll make Rockefeller honorary chairman of New York because he's got the organization.

That's our best chance.

And I said, that's right.

New York's an organization state, and California isn't.

And so Rockefeller controls the only organization state.

But my only point is that if you make him honorary chairman, which John hadn't locked in on, he was just thinking about, of California, then his staff is going to take it and run with it.

And if they pick those people, we're dead, in my opinion.

Well, the other thing that I think is critical is that, as I say, as soon as possible, these lists will fold.

And we just sign people up because I agree.

You do have a good list, Bob.

Yes, sir.

It's a 20,000 list.

I don't know if we want to go that far, but I thought it's possible to listen and everybody gets on the organizing committee.

That's the concept here.

We've always worked before and it's worked.

And then we give a chance to get some comments and what their

But now is the time to move.

That's my only concern.

You know the burning guy?

Yes.

Some of our friends, the Calls and the Adams and the Drowns, they're a little uptight about the fire, so I'm saying, you know.

Well, they think... Too close to right?

No.

Back, well, they...

They worry about that, and the corporate image, and the fact that he's got an FTC game.

But Pregasic, he's retired from that firm, and I think his modern image is exactly what we want.

He's above the battle.

He's a liberal.

Everybody thinks he's a liberal.

But that's the name of the game.

And he's accepted by the rate people.

They can't, you know, we ran by when he had up the revenue sharing thing.

You mentioned the side floors and... Not side floors.

But, God, his... Well, the other objections that take him off are, A, it involves the foundation.

Well, I think he's... Well, you know, he's...

I think he's still in there.

Him, yes.

Lyndon Johnson had... Well, I'm just giving you the argument.

I don't want to...

Well, I know.

And they all have to put their input in.

And see, they are sitting on those dollars that we still have tucked away out there.

And so I've got to pry them away and give them to Farson or whoever we have when we make the move.

I love Reynolds, but there you've got the problem.

He's a regent.

We made a big issue of the fact that, and he does, and Coburns and all the rest, and they demand it.

We demand a resignation.

Reynolds is now a regent.

And besides, I just don't think he's that loyal.

I mean, he's philosophically, personally loyal, but I don't, he does have an obligation to Reagan.

Yeah, there is a possibility.

And he's got to be nailed down.

And it's, of course, a case of putting in some strong people behind him and getting his sitting county chairman underway.

Now, the other aspect of this that I cannot cover here, we have Pete Wilson going forward in San Diego.

And he's made a good shot at it in the premiere now.

I raised with Schultz, as I told Bob I would, the question of Cap running for mayor of San Francisco.

He did not object.

I said, do you object if I raise with the president?

Cap will run if you and the governor, because he wouldn't want to.

But he has.

a good shot at being there.

That would make, in my opinion, anywhere, if he got that, if he could win, anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 votes difference in the northern part of that state, because he would be a passionate advocate for you.

It would leave an enormous hole here, of course, but I think it's well worth considering.

Do you really think it would make a difference?

The cap is so, it's such a part, and it's

You know, as you guys said, now we're cutting our heart out.

I do.

How many boats do you have you can get in San Francisco?

Well, I'm coming from the northern part of the state.

He would cover the northern part of the state.

Give us what we need to be getting.

Well, he's hatched now.

I mean, he's not going to be any use to us.

He resigned and so on.

Hey, Mayor.

is another possible.

But these are the kind of guys that we'll put into county and regional chairman.

No, see, he ran against McCloskey and got beaten.

He wants to run for chair.

He wants to not run for it, but he wants to go up.

Well, this is his one sort of last hurrah look.

Does he like it?

Does he want to run for mayor?

He always, before he's turned it off, when he says, if the president asked me to, I'd have an awful tough time turning it down.

Well, now, who do you want to run for?

Who do you want to run for?

Alioto is going to run again.

But his criminal vein doesn't.

I gave you a copy of it.

You gave one to Mitchell.

Sort of like Boston.

They, like, they...

So that case is respected by the hierarchy.

The hierarchy and all that.

I mean, you know, San Francisco State.

You're called.

You're called our captain.

You're the cardinal.

You're paid off.

My God, it's all over Los Angeles.

It's all over Los Angeles.

I have to say that this is our weakest period, not necessarily because of the war, which, of course, is a problem now, but because of the economy related to Southern California.

That's the point.

And what's bad about that is when you ask most Californians, do you think things are going to get better?

That's what's bad and unique about California.

I mean, that is the most frightening single finding in that whole poll.

No, tomorrow I'm announcing two more huge grants, a $51 million special DOT thing for

out there and, you know, every time we go out, we go, who's the strongest of the three Democrats out there?

Teddy?

I have a personal recollection, but I think Muskie was slightly ahead of Teddy.

The trial needs to be sure who runs the best one of the Democrats.

Muskie?

Yes.

Or Hugh Humphrey.

No, Humphrey was not as strong as I expected.

Oh, Kevin Jensen.

I don't even doubt about it.

and change it by events.

That's right.

Goddamn, we can just get something.

Finally.

I don't know what they're doing.

I don't know what the Christ they're doing.

I've raised no shelves and all that, and I don't think we're off to do a goddamn thing.

from all the departments as to what we can plug into California and where it can go.

That's agricultural extension.

I've had three meetings.

In fact, it was up to Colson and Mabruder right now talking about how the hell we get these projects and get them, not just get them and hand them to some congressman, but for Christ's

If he'd like it, if he'd be willing, it's a long shot, but it wouldn't make a difference, I think.

The entire system wouldn't be hopeless.

At least you know your... You have a strong voice.

You have a strong voice, you know, singing your praises up there in the air and moving all around that very high-definite number.

Yeah, he's very strong there, I think.

Well, he's been out there.

Thank God he goes out every weekend.

Yeah.

Is that a field goal?

Controls must be very strong.

Wallace is quite weak.

Wallace only gets 5 or 6 percent.

He's brought them all in the end.

This is only half of what he does nationally.

I call Robert McCloskey at the building.

Purposeful for that.

He's less than 8 percent of the California fold.

For Senator Cranston, Pete Reagan, 54-43.

Finch, 45-44.

Finch, rest.

But I can't.

I had a hell of a time beating Reagan in the Republican primary, too.

Talks about it on that basis, Mitch doesn't even run.

But by the time you get across the border, Mitch 33, Reagan 65.

What's up, guys?

by the time if he were elected his first term.

He'd be 61 now.

He'd be 63.

He'd be a Murphy all over again.

Finch for Governor does well.

Finch against Barnaby, 57-19.

Against Reineke, 42-40.

I think it's younger, 58, 25.

Yeah, right.

He has a much greater disability.

I'm still working at it hard.

Of course, on that ballot, his title of returned governor appeared, which helps.

This is a long, long, long time.

Well, it shows our California problem pretty clearly there, doesn't it?

On Democrats in a three-way race in the primary, they go 28 Humphrey, 18 McGovern, 45 Muskie.

that Humphrey runs so much weaker by there than Muskie does.

In other words, if you run weak, you run ahead of Muskie, of Humphrey, and lose very much to Muskie in California.

And that's opposed.

Don't reflect that same spread.

They reflect the village of Muskie starting with Humphrey.

Not a hell of a lot for Humphrey or West.

Let me find that figure.

The President.

Raise your hand if President Nixon is handling the problem of unemployment.

Good job, 7.7.

You're going to get good on that if you do something.

What will happen to the unemployment rates in California?

Improve 21%.

Stay the same 18%.

Become worse, 55.6%.

Now that's California, the unemployment situation.

God almighty.

Now, here's the thing.

Who is to blame for high unemployment in California?

Reagan administration, 15.1.

Aerospace cutback, 13.6.

Nixon administration, 12.4.

See, that's why Reagan is in trouble in California.

Well, more than Nixon administration.

That doesn't make sense.

It's very curious.

That's right.

Well, I'm going to go first thing.

I'll be back next week.

Well, I think basically... Well, I think if we go ahead and set this meeting up for the 11th with Herb and then Firestone and the Attorney General, if we get agreement on what's in here, I don't know that...

I think basically my... No, I didn't suggest that.

I think if Mitchell... That's fine.

have him be done or act as chairman of the organizing committee.

And he can be chairman of the organizing committee and if you want to change him, you can change him later.

The only other point is that

Well, they're not working.

A lot of people are employed.

And they're worried.

The other point is

As we look at these early primaries in Alaska and so on, and the policy I've been talking to Bob about, I think we need a little review group.

And I phrase this with John, but he was noncommittal.

Yes, just to recommend.

I know he has some problems with regard to this, but he's got so much on his plate right now.

I think we ought to have a small group of Harlow and Holloman and Reuter and Colson and myself that just meet weekly to say, God damn it, here's a problem.

We can't have any more of your favorite sons popping up.

You should actually be a little bit of an animal.

Well, our problem is that... Well, he's got some hang-ups with some of the people...

The person dislikes him, and because of his dislike, he uses distrust as a mechanism.

He's convinced that Colson is dishonest and that he is totally motivated for self-gain.

That's true.

The latter is true.

That's his point.

That's why I...

I think Mitchell's a pretty dishonest enough to, you know, use this thing for self-aggrandizement.

Well, what about this type, this meeting thing?

What do you think?

Well, I mean, I just grew up and I've talked about it.

I don't think you can do anything about it.

I don't mind a meeting being held, but you have to keep it.

Well, or I think John ought to have a surrogate.

I don't think Colson will say anything like that.

I tell you what, Colson is the kind of Mr. Johnson to be involved in, and he's maybe right.

Just as well maybe to keep him on.

They trust Harlow.

You bring them a certain thing.

Colson really is much better at working on these sort of special activities.

I'm not sure he's a very good strategist.

I do.

That's right.

But he's a damn good implementer.

That's right.

So the point that I would do is simply to have a good strategy.

I think it's better to have a group of heroes all the way.

Why not roll?

Well, for a couple of reasons.

He's got a good overall grasp of

Also, we can use him as a kind of an appellate type to some of these big people that are bitching from the business community.

And he can do things that then don't fall back in the White House.

We can't have, in my opinion, any more of these guys in.

Unless we get on top of the situation, we're going to have stand-in candidates, and we may or may not want them.

I don't know, but we've got to make a policy decision very quickly, or otherwise you're going to have other people.

That's right, and we don't know if that's our best interest, or if we're carrying that stake.

In some cases, it may be our interest to have a stand-in, but God damn it, we've got to assess these.

He decided on that ground rather than on the ground that the guy wants to be in.

Yeah, and it's just like the silly Alaska primary.

God almighty, you know.

That's science.

He doesn't show up in some form or another.

Well, I know, but why?

We don't know yet whether you're even required to take affirmative action.

There's no point if you don't have to.

That's such a...

With the decision with regard to what we do in the primaries, the only thing that is absolutely ruled out is all this making on stuff about my taking trips to various states for ostensible purposes.

I'm going to stay out of it, period.

I just think we let them go, Bob.

But we're talking about the public in primaries.

We're in a very bad situation.

That's what we were talking about, democratic.

So we're in a different situation, seriously, than Eisenhower.

We want to remember that Eisenhower, running wouldn't even stand in.

Remember in California when Wardell got that huge vote?

Yeah, against Warren.

I'm sorry, against Warren.

My point is,

We have a hell of a problem in a Republican primary.

A rightist can always get a third of the vote.

If the threat is on the left, it's going to be much harder to get about ten percent of the vote.

Well, it's not all like the philosophy that some places might get twenty-five.

But getting votes in a Republican primary by a leftist is goddamn hard work.

You've got to be either center or right, correct?

Therefore, I think tomorrow, I think I've got in this case to put my entire emphasis on November day and not on the Friday and all that kind of shit.

Because otherwise, we're just going to lose the game.

That's why Bob Hill's suggestion of going out and spending three or four days in New Hampshire, you know, in a lodge or some goddamn thing.

Somebody wants me to go out to the lake in Wisconsin and spend two days.

Somebody else wants me to come to Nebraska again because they've got a primary and go up to Oregon and do something.

Come on.

No, sir.

But what in the hell reason is there?

I mean, I just don't think it's a good way to spend the use of time.

No, sir.

But in those states where you have to go in the ballot, where you can't avoid it.

Like Florida.

Like Oregon.

Then I believe in California.

California?

delegations filed for you.

You have to designate one as yours, because I thought about what we had to do if we had to go all the way against Reagan, which we didn't want to do.

But I mean, you have to ascend to that delegation.

Now, the point is that in those states, we should make just every break our backs to see to it that you get the biggest goddamn vote.

And we keep out.

I mean, we make a deliberate effort to either add on or keep out or anything that's going to produce a very strong vote in the states where you have to appear.

That doesn't mean you have to go out and campaign, but it does mean there should be some good tactical thinking ahead of time.

And...

Conversation.

You're talking about two levels of conversation, one of discussion, one with Hall and Harlow, yourself.

Anybody else want to contribute to that?

Yes, I think he's got a pretty good feel about the Midwest, particularly.

He moves around the country.

He's a political animal.

I don't think he's got the tactical when you're talking about primers and all that sort of thing.

You and Harlow know a whole lot more about it than he does.

He's never been around any traction.

It takes a long time to learn.

Anybody else?

I'd keep it all to small.

All the smoke.

I think that probably is a good idea.

I agree.

I see your point about this point.

I think it's another reason that's a good part of it.

You know, the Midwest probably will rise in our people, the South, and so forth and so on.

Should you have any, it's impossible.

I hear you.

Totally loyal.

Totally.

And also very, very clever, you know, in some of these places.

Who is Mitchell and why?

Well, that's his problem.

Mitchell really is operating with his own little team of clients and Marty and... Yeah.

Well, the problem there is that Irvingman's request this morning at the Spurling thing, he said, you know, take my name out as a possible candidate for Attorney General.

If the question arises, if Mitchell leaves, I do.

And, you know, the thing went up in the room.

They said, well, I said, you have to ask the attorney general.

And I said, you put the question that did Mitchell leave.

All I'm telling you is that Irving has made it clear he just has no desire to be attorney general.

So they all start playing the game of blindings.

And I said, I don't have any comment on that.

But the point is that somebody's going to run the shop.

But Mitchell's using blindings.

He wants it because it's successful.

Probably.

Well, you've got some other people to do it.

You've got to promote it.

And you've got some other people over there.

He's using, for example, he's got Pat Gray in the Civil Division.

No, but he's got, he's picking people so that they can each be available a third of their time to do political things.

So, you know, he's thought about that problem and he's looking about an anthem.

You know, you can see Bob out there.

is for me to take the posture I did in that press conference last night.

That was a superb performance, Senator Price.

Those bastards, now, it drives them right up the wall.

They want to be in there.

They want to need them.

And yet, nobody can really honestly question that position.

When I take three talking times, when I go to any part of the questions, that's the other thing to do.

I ain't going to give these bastards a chance to equal time.

You know, that has real slack.

How the hell can they get equal time on a press conference?

You see, they'll be asking for that later.

And we're going to want to use a lot of press conference.

And now these bastards and all that, I can see them rioting.

Now, coming back to this thing, I think that's a good idea.

I think, I do think that we need, I think that Mitchell is a smart end for it.

I just want to just make it clear that I am not going to do any campaign, period.

The only thing I will do, looking toward November, is to bring in

of things from the key states.

I've already covered a lot of them.

I want to do the same for Ohio.

I want to do the same for New York.

I want to do another thing out in California sometime.

I want to do something for Florida, whether they get any kind of approval.

You know what I mean?

We've already gone through around this track about 18 times.

We haven't yet got the names.

But maybe there will forever.

All you want to do is get the next group in and you bring them into the White House.

This is the best use of the White House I can think of.

Bring them in for a little black-tie dinner and you just come in there.

And I don't talk politics at all.

I just talk about the great, the workhouse.

There's a nice show.

Huh?

what we're up to and so forth.

And thanks for their support.

And then after the afternoon of such a day, they have a hard-nosed political talk about everything.

And then I'd be in for dinner at night.

But I have an afternoon seminar on how we organize the whole thing.

How we organize Ohio for next.

Maybe we've got to do it all over again.

We could read a different section.

I think you can fill that format, too, because in some cases,

Just coming in, making your pitch, and getting out of there so you don't have to sit there through all that bullshit.

And rather than having any bullshit after I speak, that it should not be Thursday after I speak, I think the bullshit should be in the afternoon.

See what I mean, Bob?

Let the guys sit there and let them squabble around and so forth and so on, and then when they come in, then let it be upbeat.

We end on an upbeat note and we all sing songs and go easy.

Coming back to this thing on the primary thing, do you think we could have done anything different on campus?

I don't think there is.

They aren't required to make a leash to turn them to go.

Well, I wondered whether anybody on the other side had been.

They didn't.

And, you know, we don't know what kind of game Bliss is playing.

I mean, we could have done some advanced work.

Mitchell's tied into Bliss.

Yeah, Mitchell's very close to Bliss.

As a matter of fact, the town thing is all right at this point.

Basically because he's standing in for Nixon.

Clearly so, right?

So you've got the TAG group for whatever it's worth.

There's a hell of a lot of people who don't like it.

You've got to set up a committee that goes beyond that.

And what we do in the other primary states, you can't have standards.

In Florida, California, Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, we're on the ballot period.

Why don't we eat straw?

And there you just, it goes on.

But our strategy, though, in 60, marching through those

even though it was painful and all that.

Was it the right strategy?

It paid off.

And I must say, in all honesty, as opposed to not having a name, let's say a state like Indiana and having a name, even though you get a smaller vote, I like the conditioning that it brings because they've committed to you as a primary and a voter.

There's something to say for that, too.

Maybe you're right.

Probably on the other side, the people in Ohio are voting for TAP, not for Nixon, even though TAP is the Nixon standard.

That's right.

Well, the only thing is that we've got to have an early warning system.

This also means that I think that I didn't get it.

There is something to say to the organization.

So we can do that too.

We can play it away, can't we?

Provided that all of it is done, which incidentally was the case in 63.

You didn't go into one of those states.

I don't want to go into any one of those states, period.

That's it.

It's got to be done by local committees and all the pressures.

I think if we could start that kind of an operation, I think building those things up is a good idea.

Well, it does mean we have to build up a second cadre of...

I just wanted to report to you.

They didn't ask about the .

But they did come in on the use of presidential format to suppress arms.

They said, I'm going to kill as far as support.

That's why they want to use it as a part of the program.

They want to go into that question.

Of course, you give equal time to everybody.

But I said that you were going to use it at any time.

You know the real reason.

Part of the fact that I want to discuss it.

I don't know what we're going to do about it.

But at the moment, I would say a word about that.

Equal time.

Press conference will never be used.

I won't say one damn word.

They said, well, where would we be able to ask about the question?

I said, no, we're not thinking about politics.

We're going to have to carry on.

I said, yes, it comes.

We're going to have to ask the partisan forum.

But I said at any time, before I can tell you, I said at any time.

At any time.

That's right.

And that, who said it too?

I never went to have a presidential press conference with three dollars each time to answer partisan questions.

Very good.

We're not taking partisan questions.

And let's speak early.

Good.

It's a good thing.

Let them squeal about it.

So what are they?

So what are they on the side?

They're on the side of the president who doesn't want to discuss politics and politics with the president.

And so that proves that he's trying to hide something.

People don't want you to discuss it.

They're on the wrong side of it, just like they're on the wrong side of the baby.

You should have planned for it.

Well, there was really no way to get it in.

Did you watch the 11 o'clock news?

And it came over a show.

Did you watch it?

That was the week.

about, as I said, we have to realize that we have significant problems now.

Change, basically only if the issues change.

There's a goddamn thing we can say, there's a goddamn thing we can do.

There is nothing that we can say, nothing that we can, no amount of rhetoric, no amount of public relations.

with regard to the economy.

Three things people care about.

They're only true.

The war is first.

The economy is second.

In California, the economy could be first.

And the third one, of course, is dope, drugs, and law and order.

It's still a hell of an issue.

And people find that true.

A hell of an issue if we're not doing something.

If we're not doing it, we're not getting any credit for it.

And that's why it is hard.

What about Dole with regard to

Well, he ought to be there because he ought to know what's going on.

He doesn't add very much, but he would be very important.

Very important that you handle this information.

because Mitchell does not think he gives approval immediately on his back.

So you tell Mitchell, okay, the whole purpose of this is simply so that we can, you know, have some exchange of information about this and we'll, when you can't be present, we'll pass it on.

And I don't think Colson should be there.

And tell Mitchell that whenever he wants to join, he can.

The president feels that he ought to keep his relation with Mitchell.

You know, sort of.

You get my point.

Yeah, but I think, I don't think that Lou should be without Mitchell.

I think he should.

You don't think he should?

I agree with Bob.

I think, I think he ought to try to do it weekly, and if he can't come, he ought to send someone.

That's my opinion.

Well, maybe he's out of the country or out of the state or something.

All right.

I think Mitchell should run.

If Mitchell does come, that would be great.

I think Mitchell will listen to Art.

He doesn't know all the answers.

First, my meeting should be... You should just meet with Bishop.

Well, I could...

I could meet with this group, if it's that small.

Yeah, if the line wasn't a one-hundred.

That's small.

That's small, I could.

But I wouldn't want to have any large in the seat.

You, Bob Pitt, Bob Fulton, Mitchell, myself, my wife, totally trustworthy.

No trustworthy demand in judgment.

I have a much higher regard for Dennis than apparently the others who were around here.

Goddamn, he hasn't screwed up any of those southern things.

He's handled them extremely well.

Well, I agree with you.

Yeah, I did.

Who the hell else have we got liking around?

Nobody.

Well, and also from this group, you're going to get recommendations for your coterie of top field men that we've got to get out to do this thing.

You've got to decide how you're going to get them.

What are you going to do about Pennsylvania?

What are you going to do about New York?

What are you going to do about Indiana?

Well, who is it?

What about Dave?

Well, the only other one I would recommend, and I know you don't like to have mixed bags, but...

The more dramatic side of me, John Irving might not be included.

I know you're...

I think he'd be great on it.

Great on it.

Except this, that if there's any guy who's got a full plate, it is John Irving.

Yes, and I think he'd better concentrate on that.

Well, except a couple of others are on the mark for it.

But let's look at this.

Nothing on his full plate is as good as it is, except whether it fits in with...

John's got a staff to run his .

But John has himself structured so he can kind of, he moves over the top, you know, hits the peaks.

He doesn't .

He purposely keeps himself that way.

I don't think .

Well, and also, he's got the biggest amount of input.

If we've got an issue... Yeah, if we've got an issue, and he knows, and he's dealt with these people because he advanced them, I think he ought to be included.

He can't come.

That's the way to pull our political team together.

Okay, sir.

That's good.

Yes.

Also, as the first Vice President, what's the only one you really have?

Well, he said it's going to rain this afternoon at 4, so we won't be able to greet the exporters.

And what they proposed is just to run it through their White House door, which is what they were going to do anyway, and the East Room.

No, sir.

There's 2,400 people in here.

All right.

We can work it out.

I'll do it that way.

Good.

I'd rather do it that way.

If it doesn't rain, we ought to go ahead.

Oh, sure.

It's going to rain.

Ah.

You see, the one thing Mitchell has a phobia about is people doing things he doesn't know about.

I'm all right if you know what you're doing.

That's why I think Mitchell is very important.

We should not be without Mitchell.

I agree.

I think Mitchell should be there.

And actually, if he wants to bring him by, he should let him bring him.

Let him bring anybody he wants.

Yeah.

Well, no.

No, no, no.

He doesn't want to.

Mitchell... Because Mitchell is a place of...

He'd be sitting right at Colson's side there.

Talk about full plates.

Colson's plate is full and brimming over.

More than ever.

Way more than ever.

Colson's doing a hell of a job.

Sure he is, son.

Well, like these goddamn veterans last night.

I don't know if you saw the news.

These young veterans.

on the, that just clobbered Kerry and they're ready to go.

Going on their own initiative.

Of course.

Good.

Trump just moved out and stuff like that.

He got the networks back against the wall on the equal time.

That's right.

Which is why they're letting other people on.

That's right.

And he just, but I don't, he's not

The only unresolved item here, then, is my hope that you would consider putting it to cap with regard to that San Francisco mayorality.

Yeah, I'm sure.

But I do think, I did talk to Schultz about it.

I did talk to Schultz about it.

First, it would be a wonderful way to get many people to be prepared in the city.

Second thing, you've got to do it right.

No, no, but then the mayor, you can go to state, you can go statewide.

Yeah, I know.

He's sitting in the big office.

No, you know he's sitting in the big office.

He's the mayor of San Francisco.

It's a lot different from being mayor of all cities.

That's the jewel city of this country.

Yeah.

And another thing is, he had this guy that, our mayor, he could then go on to be with other than he wants.

And also, you've got to remember, it doesn't work that directly with our theme.

Not yet.

It is going to come.

Unless until we have a second term.

And about three judges die.

He's a Jew.

Well, he's half Jew now.

Well, see, this election, Mr. President, will be over in September.

If he loses, you can put

All right.

Well, you've got a problem, Eric, because of what he wants you to be attracted to.

Of the United States, yes.

Well, we cannot give him that.

So it's better to have him go around for mayor.

Well, just about the time he's finished losing for sure is about the time the German government will do it.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I don't say that I want him there for some other reason.

And I want him back there to take this.

The other thing I was going to say is, I don't know who the hell would pay this place.

That's how do you get a political budget, man.

We got a hell of a problem in the OMB right now.

Weinberger's the only political animal in that joint.

And we're all right.

We're all right.

Looks at it as sort of a, well, you know, Flanagan's doing a pretty good job of plugging that in.

I want Flanagan to be advisor director.

No, I'm serious.

He'd be good.

Would he be good?

and all that, and he used to call me Bruce.

That was the governor, which would be a damn good vice director.

He sure would get along with the cabinet officers.

Screw the cabinet officers.

But he did the sub-denominator.

Screw the cabinet officers.

The other thing about finance, we've got to remember, we are national.

What we're going to do should be a planetary.

We're going to have everything.

He must know that.

I don't have time, but he's got to know that.

And just as well, I think, if he did this,

All these guys got to think of this.

That's what Wanker's got to think of.

He's got to, it can't be breathed.

It might be breathed, breathed in there for the court and all the other things.

But I've had that back in my mind for a long time.

They're talking about Jews for the court.

Only Jew, I never put it in the court.

I know he's a Jew.

I know he's a misdemeanor.

on that.

He's got a marvelous name.

He's a little bit too moderate for me on some issues, but he'll be right on the law and order.

He's a great constitutionalist.

Correct.

He's a bright man and an honest guy.

That's what I'm going to tell him.

He must be crying.

He's shaking his head shortly.

He's considered a conservative now.

He used to be the left-winger.

Yeah.

He's a great...

I'll talk to Weiner.

The other thing that I think, though, thinking of our strategy with regard to these franries, maybe you all guys ought to have a meeting on it.

Well, I think as soon as Bob tells John, we ought to set it up and go.

And we have to start a step with the weather planning.

And climate planning.

This is a big question on the close-up, Sheriff.

What do you want?

I want to take the entire United States Congress.

Now, let's start with one of them.

I'm going to that little room, and I'm going to stay in that goddamn room, and I ain't going to come out except to say hello and goodbye.

for three hours going on, three hours going back and forth.

The poor guy can't hear anymore.

He's a wonderful friend and everything.

And we've done things.

We've done some things.

Believe me, huh?

I don't care if they blow the whole pint up.

That'd be better.

The congressional people are all going to the dedication.

Most of them are staying for the fall that night so they don't come back.

Take them all out of the wine box.

Have them go back before they go between the two areas.

And I'll go back to them.

But take goddamn new staff.

We don't need much staff to go out there.

We can't be putting a bunch of new staff in where there's zero.

That doesn't work for me.

So I'll fill the...

I'll fill the...

Yeah, but I mean, who is it?

Well, that's our problem.

We've got the governor.

The governor.

I kind of think Bud is still...

Bud is still going to be the best candidate.

Well, he's still technically a member of your staff.

He should go out.

He's a wonderful guy.

How else can he do it?

I had him in for...

He said yesterday he's cut the hell out of that staff.

And he's shaken down.

He's raised up a hundred to a thousand more bucks in the private sector.

And now we're trying to, he's kind of working on the environment thing.

And he's going to have a drug, he's got a drug.

I wish for the Boy Scouts that we put drugs first.

Yes, sir, but drugs first, I think.

Well, in Bud Crowe's report... No, no, no, no, no.

Bud Crowe's report has a big part where you're asking to the 4-H clubs and the White House to educate and educate them for them on drugs.

And we've got money for that.

We really strike out in our issue of all drugs.

Absolutely striking.

It's one, that's one that's so easy to grain stand in the system under doing that.

But you don't have to, you gotta do something that you can see.

He does know how to publicize.

Bob did a hell of a job on the morning.

CBS Morning News yesterday, no, yesterday, Bob Wilson, and he turned it just the other way.

Senator Ryan, how come your view of, didn't I hear your view of Rumstone had reported that this, didn't you think it was a good idea to, before getting to your point, to put this thing in context?

You know, I didn't want this idea to appear that we were just going to have a big problem to handle drugs in Vietnam.

running around over their turf as tourists are just as bad as the guys in their armed services.

That's true.

And Bob did that yesterday.

That was the point.

Instead of saying there's a big drug problem, he was talking about the point that we've got a big protector going to solve the problem.

But it's a continuing effort.

And I mentioned the fact that you have the governors in.

You've been working on this.

And we're going to stay at it and stay at it.

And you don't solve it.

They hit us again this morning in the press conference.

They say, well, you're going to have a crash course on this.

Yes.

And I said, you don't solve these things.

It's a long-term battle, but it's like fighting an epidemic.

We're going to shake up a few people.

We're going to shake up the Continental Space Department a little more.

And defense has got to be shaken up.

I've got to go.

Well, I'm meeting with an editor-in-chief.

And I'm going to shake the little bit of a Jesus out of that troop.

Believe me.

Eric is going to tell you his plan on that.

He's got a great idea for that.

He's taken some newscasts, network newscasts.

They run about 15 minutes, and he wants to open the meeting by running this film, which has testimony of GIs on how they were treated.

It's a veterans' hospital problem and the Joint Chiefs type stuff.

So if you don't have to go in and say, you guys have done a bad job, then they say, yes, we've done a pretty good job.

Do I see this too?

Yeah.

They show it at the Brantley Capitol.

I've asked earlier that Crowe to re-examine the penalties.

I don't know whether the penalties are enough for...

I'm not referring to pushers who do this sort of service.

I'm referring to the big, blind bastards who are caught.

I think they ought to get the penalty.

Where?

It involves... Now, the death penalty, of course, I realize you can't

I think it's only a regrettable crime.

Only when it's an interstate matter.

If I thought about anybody who supplies drugs, they ought to know they're gonna get the whole boat thrown.

And I think that on that,

them up, but they'll always come up and say, understand, this answers, the usual argument about penalties is like a marijuana, when the penalty is too heavy, then it's counterproductive.

I realize that, but we're not talking about addicts.

We're not talking about the little guys.

We're talking about the pushers.

I mean, we're talking about the drug traffic, and it's a hell of a big traffic.

The other thing that I asked, I don't know if you remember what I just said on the

and the Institute of Health.

He's got a face-up to this, or else he and the other doctor, who's the head of the Institute of Sanctuary in Phoenix, come up with this.

I don't know.

What about the medical?

I think we've got to have some restrictions on the medical profession and include that in the remarks I made up there.

I think that should be the theme of my care.

My care is DAV, AMA.

Not only medical care.

I'm calling upon them on a national program of drugs.

Did I make that clear?

And part of that is the abuse of the whole prescription system.

That's my quote.

The prescriptions, even the prescriptions, we have got to stop.

They prescribe amphetamines and everything else in huge amounts.

And they make drug addicts out of it.

And I didn't think I'd be charged with it.

And I'm going to stop drug addicts.

Well, and the abuse of it.

They do it much properly in terms of that.

The pharmacists, too, they do too much on refills and all that.

Yes.

ups and downs and so forth and so on.

We all get them.

When I got all the money, it is what it is.

Well, and this is what would upset you when you talk to the troops in New York.

It's when they can't get marijuana or hash or whatever.

They make combinations of these things and the uppers and the downers and alcohol and God, it just, just,

The old torpedo juice.

God, I tend to.

The little grapefruit juice.

The grapefruit juice.

And we greatly have made the same stuff.

We all have all 150 brewers of grapefruit juice.

I'm going to give you an unbelievably big lift.

But getting back to the theme that we have in politics here, I think we need to get somebody to mobilize.

I'll be back here.

I know it's not meeting with the divine group again.

Well, they'll come in bitching us.

Or do you think McGregor would get another word out to us in the next session?

Right now, they shouldn't be bitching.

God damn it.

Bother things going on in the world.

I'm sure you know.

We don't know how many of them are going to come on.

If one of them comes on, this administration will not be good.

The war, as I said last night, is my biggest problem.

Plus, before, I feel very, very happy for its credibility and progress.

For this one, we're going to need it.

No question.

It's going to come.

Well, you've got some other big things that are coming that are going to be disturbing in their impact.

Now, they could roll the other way and they could help around.

But if they don't, our guys ought to be up there backing it up.

Now, we are getting a little back.

I say a little.

I call a lot on some of those draft votes.

I think it's more than that, Mr. President.

I think that McGregor put it very well when he said that these guys are coming on the significance of your victories and not just the Mansfield thing, but so on.

is a confirmation of the kind of support you're getting.

And it cuts across both parties.

And so I think it's already begun to pay off.

When you talk about being in the middle of a new era of foreign policy negotiations, that gets home, and that makes points, because that's what people want.

I don't know if it's going to be equal yet, Bob.

Well, it's going to be in California until it begins.

of the people, one of the major weaknesses of our cabin officers, with these types of economy, they don't go out and talk about this.

I used to say over and over again, I have an orange shirt.

You know what, we get a poor rating with these people.

How do you get a good rating?

Not the, it isn't, this press match is not on it, but we just say, we get a bird, we get a ferret, and the money, somebody's just gotta go and sing it.

Everybody can move.

That's where you get into the polling thing, which is kind of interesting.

You get a very high rating on dignity.

You get a low rating on has restored dignity to the White House.

Benham's argument there is nobody will admit that dignity was taken away from the White House.

So you will never get a positive.

will not let themselves say, the Republicans all say, yeah, but the Democrats won't.

The Democrat is not going to admit to himself that Johnson took David E. Wade from the White House.

And people want to believe that there's dignity.

That's right.

They want to believe in the president.

That's right.

That's why we get these damn receptions.

Even a girl with 50% approval in the polls, 99% in the streets.

The interesting thing is, too, you know,

Even on the approval thing, I mean, the trends are inevitable.

Say, like, California, where you put the name R after a name, D, you're in trouble right off the bat.

But we win in California.

It's always close.

You're going to win it.

When the great issues go with it.

And the main thing is the economic issue of your house.

Remember, people are scared.

And they've got to...

What are we going to do, though, about this proposition of getting Congressmen lined up?

Senator, I want to get a group.

I want a group.

It bothers me.

I can't get rid of this point that nobody has followed up.

We're the Nixon loyalists.

We're the government.

We're the Congressmen.

It's the weakness of our own Republican organization, plus the fact that labor is zeroing in on these areas, and we've got to cope with it now.

We've got this young crew coming in.

including your friend D.R.

Jones, who we're going to go out on a pan-out basis and zero in on where we think we can get Republicans lined up.

I can strongly, strongly encourage, for example, colleges and universities to stay away from the companies, to stay away from most of them, to stay away from things like Sanger and Cal, but I can assure you, believe me, there is a lot of good ground in the deep bottom out through the Midwest, throughout most of the South,

No question about it.

You take Texas A&M, you take Nebraska, you take Kansas, you take up and down and so forth.

There are hundreds of thousands we can get.

Don't write them all.

Take the total of the universities and colleges in the country.

Rank them by academic distinction.

I'm working on it.

Eliminate the top 25%.

And go around completely.

And the rest of it you'll get.

At least a 50-50.

A better majority, I'll bet you.

I have some question about it.

If you take off the top 25% in academic distinction, they're the worst.

Sure.

That's a Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago.

This boy that Maria's going to marry has a registration thing at Loyola.

Is he a candidate?

No, he's not a candidate.

Two to one registration in that.

Republican, and then right of the law school, now that's it.

Yeah, that's right.

My point is this, that if we move on the peace issue, let's move it.

By the end of the year, a final announcement will be made.

You can't say it.

You couldn't breathe.

I would deny it.

But it will be made.

Yes, sir.

All right.

So that's that issue.

You've got it.

Well, my point is, Mr. President, that there's enough in these programs,

You've got a whole new, you've got a whole, you know, they're thinking in terms of two and three

nutritionists.

They can start teaching school, raise their two kids, go out and be nutritionists.

You've got a whole new family of occupations that are going to come out of your health proposals and all the rest.

That's what they like to hear about.

And one of the reasons we're hurting is that these kids can't find jobs right now.

We've trained too goddamn many of them in the soft sciences, and they can't get jobs.

And they'd damn well like to see the Dow Chemical recruiters come back on the campus so they can get a job.

They'll go to the geographer or a

You're a political scientist, for Christ's sake.

You've got to come out of your ears.

You've got many people who are political scientists.

You're a history major.

You've got no use as a history major.

Only to go to law school.

Not worth a damn otherwise.

It's a great education.

If they think you're willing to go to work, it's something else.

But that's part of your problem.

Well, you know, that's also the problem with many a revolutionary society.

You find that what happens is that when the well-educated people are able to do it,

They raise hell.

That's right.

The problem with our society is that that's multiplied so many times over than any other because the well-educated people are about 60% of their population.

Well, they're not.

They're hypocrites.

The president turned into two goddamn men who go into college.

Exactly.

They're overestimating the wrong thing.

Too many of them are not very productive.

Here we are.

And I have also put in the other.

I've also put in the shelves before.

If I find her or go, he's going to get this big or two.

I've been able to get out of shelves.

No, I never would have.

education in this country come hell or high water now i know what we're doing i know the national science foundation i know hw has a hell of a lot of programs and god damn i'm going to cut those bastards off in the hip pockets you know george doesn't want to do it bob because chicago was a great beneficiary but god damn those universities the university of california is one of the biggest beneficiaries

You know what?

It's because they've got one hell of a lot of activities in the atomic party.

Cut it.

Cut it down.

What is it?

It's just a set of tools.

running around down there, you can blow everything up.

Some of it, you're stuck with what you've got.

You've got to use it this way.

The foundation has a half billion dollars.

And Leo Rich comes in and says, what does that go for?

He can't ever give any answer.

It goes to subsidize teachers' salaries.

That's all.

That's what those passengers are interested in.

Nothing else.

Well, that's what it does go for.

I'm going to call it research.

What it really does is not even teach us what it does.

It's going to make it possible for people who should be teaching not to teach and still learn the language.

I would take all that money that you cut out of that

the new NASA.

See my point?

The applied technology.

Then let them get the hell over there.

But quit subsidizing the education elite and putting it into the applied science and so forth.

We've really got to follow them.

and asked for years.

So I know Bernie Schieber, you don't know Schieber, we had John, I don't want to give you a report on it, but he made the case that we have lost, McNamara cost us 10 goddamn years in terms of applied technology.

And we just, that's part of the gap where we're having to close now.

Well, the other thing I have to give, not one section, I have to test this.

I don't know why.

But we've got to do it.

God, to me, to see those two flags, the British-French Conqueror and the Russian T-U-O, is a shocking thing.

It's the United States.

We've inherited a great God's hand-made watch from the one president.

We have the biggest in the world.

I remember, let me tell you about it.

I remember some time ago, I knew it meant nothing at all.

This is in 1958 or 9.

Bill Rodgers was on it.

He was flying around this huge Russian turtle ground and flew across.

It was the biggest plane in the world.

And standing beside it was this great Boeing 777.

And he's not sure he's headed to Russia.

It's not the biggest plane in the world.

So the Boeing and, of course, Douglas, the last 10 years have dominated the airplanes in the world.

They ran home and were out for three years.

When you go to California, let's figure, sure it's not from here in Miami, not from here in New York, all the sharpies will be used, but the bowels will be useful.

Anything flat that is four hours, that is more than three hours, you're going to take an SSC.

Because you notice in your own mechanical makeup,

I find that when I fly to Florida, two hours is just right.

I go, I feel fine, I get off, and there's no wear and tear.

Whenever I go more than that, it's about three hours, and I'm sure that I'm normal.

You see, I have fought so much, I have no fear, I have no complexes, I have not even, I'm first in the best plane in the world.

But I'm three hours or more, there's a deep package that sets in.

It sure does.

There's no question about it.

If you were to go to California in five and a half hours, or two hours, what the hell are you going to do?

You're going to go two hours.

Japan, four hours.

Rio, four hours.

Instead of 15, Jesus Christ, these goddamn rules are the same thing you've done to us.

It's good to see you.

And not give you that many more seat miles.

Bill, seat miles.

No, it's not just the same.

And the other thing, Mr. President, that we just totally lost in the debate is it's the commercial advantage, the freight, for God's sake.

And you never made that case.

And I am afraid of the disease of that.

The air freight, for God's sake.

That's getting serious across the world faster.

It isn't just people.

We are going to speak with them.

Sure.

But that's where we're going to get screwed in this.

to develop it.

And America and Serbia have got to have the guts and the balls to support some kind of a development in this area.

Don't you agree?

And we've got to do it.

We've got to go at it.

And the government has got to find a way through military means to subsidize it.

And that's how you build it.

The boy was first in the military.

Sir?

So you developed the whole thing?

Actually, Southern California in some parts.

Proportionately, it is.

Seattle dominates it, and Boeing dominates Seattle.

Yeah, well, Southern California is 105 degrees, 7%.

And Southern California is its nominee, right?

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Mariners County is 9 and 10.

Yes, sir.

Just so we're going to know, is it going on to this point?

I don't think so.

The tax thing is being redone, the export import thing, and when you go out there's going to have quite a list of things that you don't have to say.

But it's coming, it's coming.

Because my point is that they've already now said we're going to make this many more pictures, so that's going to really help the employment picture to some extent out there.

What about the other things?

I don't know.

I mean, anything else would be put into the .net state?

I don't know.

But at least one of her looked over everything.

sessions with Weinberger, and we got this computer thing that tells us where we can put them in that gets the greatest impact, and that's, you know.

Really?

Yes.

And that's everything from agricultural extension to irrigation districts to HEW to the whole, all across the government.

Which is a valuable thing for Bob, because somebody, those things happen if somebody keeps banging at them, you know, day after day.

What more have you got for California?

It's like

Johnson did for Texas.

Johnson and Kennedy did for Massachusetts.

I had to do more for Massachusetts.

Remember, we ran against law.

The thing that's working, we really have got over there.

Is any of that getting through to the press at all?

Oh, hell, I can show you a pile of clippings this high.

The administration's gotten the credit for a model city thing here, or work.

I made a phone call, and they come back and give us credit.

And actually, we've got these mayors.

Instead of using Tunney and Cranston, they use our office.

They look like a third party.

They're going to win anyway.

They have to be informed.

I got pretty specific.

He says the only thing he told him was

As the head of the delegation, you should not be honored.

You should not.

do it is that this is where we go with this mailing.

John calls and says, we want your names.

And we want you on the organizing committee.

But you've already named the chairman, and it's an accomplished sign.

You don't say, you're not going to be honorary chairman.

We just think there's another chairman.

I think we better analyze those states right away is what we're going to do.

And it may be, and I want to reconsider there, it may be that good show is in the primary.

It's not because they have some psychological effect and a bad show isn't a bad one.

Also because it does get your organization steamed up is probably a good idea.

And hell, you've got to spend the money some way.

Anyway, that's a good idea.

And also, you get to test that team, you know.

And you find out who produces and who doesn't produce.

And I'll tell you this, sir.

If you're not on that belt in Indiana right now, it's a damn disaster.

And I sure wouldn't want to surrogate for you in Indiana.

And that's your country, you know.

That's your country.

I think we better get this worked out before we get any thought of having any stand-ins other than TAP.

But I went over that with Mitch, and I said, no, because the story indicated that this would be a tactic in other states as well, and it was denied that, right?

That's right.

So I don't think we want to use a tactic, right?

I was asked about it this morning.

I just said no decision has been made.

I'm sure that happens in the last 50 or 50 years of science.

We have asked that you would meet with the two congressman teams on the VA medical budget for 72 with the purpose to preserve your budget strategy and a burger larger congressional add-on to the budget.

They feel that you need to do this, otherwise they're going to lock in a patient load that will screw you and accelerate

Inspectors.

There's no problem, Inspector.

We can change the position at any time you want.

1130.

Having it mine is a possibility.

I think it's a good idea.

What do you think?

I think it's a darn good idea.

That is it.

It puts it to them again, and I do it for exactly the same reason.

on some of these things and then go right back to the same old questions.

I have 11 of those.

We are.

We have this.

I didn't tell him.

Remember, he said he didn't want me to.

We did.

We're going to limit this to this priority in the foreign policy area.

You need to limit this to me.

It's better to do it.

Yeah.

I just said that you could.

I think there's something to say for it from another standpoint.

And it just frustrates the hell out of them.

One of their big pitches is that you're all politically motivated, and then they won't want to write a political story in effect.

Yeah.

high-level inspiration.

On this, I have no objection to others, but we cannot take people that are political activists working actively for other candidates in on a matter of this time.

At this time, because basically it would simply mean that before, as we develop this situation,

before the goddamn thing got, when we were ready to present it.

They put it out.

You understand?

It's all these big programs, you know, sort of, which are excellent.

So I favor bipartisanship.

I favor, you know, and we'll bring the people in on all these things and all these studies and so forth and so on.

But I, this big push on Charlie Schultz, this jerk Schultz who's been lobbying, he catches me every hour on the hour and everybody

I don't know.

Yeah, he is.

Oh, Christ.

He's mobilizing to tear us down.

It just doesn't make

See, I can see hauling John Gardner in something where they've got a committee on reorganization of e-beliefs and some damn thing like that, where it's already done, but I sure can't see it in a planning group.

A planning group.

Go to America.

Just wrong.

The bipartisan people should be people that are bipartisan.

is basically a win for the Democrats.

It's the same thing, you know, all the Democrats out of office.

It's their port of exile.

We don't mind it.

I don't mind the Democrats.

You can hide them and arrest them.

Don't try to exclude us every time.

There are plenty of non-political Democrats who believe in the country who will, you know, on the issues, the substance, will work with us.

That's what you want to have people do.

We have no energy.

There's no problem.

Just because they're doing it doesn't mean

with the military and I have to leave, having the department's advantage, my husband can leave immediately.

And he was working out.

And he will take his leave so that the president, he's the most, can stay with the group and so forth and so on.

But I will have to leave this next night due to the fact that I have a, I have to, for a breakfast meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

And I'll go over to the cabinet.

I just can't believe this can do this.