Nixon, Blount & White House photographer on U.S. Postal Service

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How are you doing?

All right.

How are you doing?

Good.

Nice to see you.

How's it going?

Uh-huh.

Are you getting ready?

Well, how's it going?

Good people.

Oh, I know that.

I love those people.

They're good, apparently.

Well, they love you.

I like the country.

Oh.

It's, uh... Good to know.

All right.

Good, sir.

Well, uh...

Mr. President, I've got one thing that needs to be talked about.

And that is the matter of the confirmation of the Board of Governors.

You're nominated in September of next year.

And they did not hold any hearings, even.

Then we made a recessional in January, and they haven't held any hearings on them yet.

Basically, it's just an hour long.

Gail McGee, to an extent, they kind of play it off on each other, but it's basically Hiram.

He knows that he ought to name a member to the board.

Now, this is the way that, you know, it's Hiram that is entitled to one.

Now, why is Gail McGee the chairman of the community?

I don't know.

Why not man's people and use God?

It's just the same kind of process.

The purpose of the form was to remove the input of partisan efforts both in the Congress and in the executive department on either side.

And if, of course, the Congress is going to name political people to the board, why don't you name political people to the board?

You name all non-partisan people.

Well, this is a kind of a confrontation situation.

No more conversation with Bryce Harlow.

What kind of Bryce is he bossing?

Yeah, yeah.

He knows how I'm doing.

He's very close.

Uh, well, I don't think we can come down to this.

Sometimes you've got to pay a price to get something done.

Well, we don't.

So if you would, if you would, if you would authorize, if you would authorize Bryce to see if he could make a deal with Brock, you know, he could take care of his sentence some other way and just say, look, you need, give the president five names.

She would tell you, I'm going to support you 500 names.

on one of those to that boy.

Bryce can make that kind of a ring, and this would be such a great thing about this.

Scott, do you want to call Bryce, or?

Give Bryce a call.

Bryce knows I had him working on another thing for a second on this time.

And so close and as we got our mind back, I wanted him to go out and cut a deal with, tell him he got to get it through.

Right.

I'm familiar with this.

I said, he said, cut a deal with Baum.

Now, Baum's just a clever Chinese.

That's what he is.

Fair enough.

There's one other thing that we say in that regard.

It is so important to maintain the virginity of that board.

I know that.

I understand.

I don't want to cut people, but can we have the letter?

I agree.

But my point is that, you know, some of our own team would like to do it.

And as the board members come up again, you know, it's better to make a profit or make part of some promise to that board.

And I would hope that Ash, if you will,

to see that, uh, that's not done without people, and that, that we just, okay, this is essential.

That's why we did this.

Don't worry, I have no intention of harming any part of these people.

Not your life.

But, as I said, I can see that we have a practical problem here.

That's what we've got to do.

Just a brief word, the post office is going very well.

We ended last year with 12,000 people.

I saw that.

We had a $2 billion increase in the bill.

Your lawyers say that last time that happened, remember, a man running out to the contract?

Yeah, yeah.

So anyway, it's going very well, and there's a lot of good people.

I met with Bob Hansberger today.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, he's a great guy.

Great guy.

He won't do it.

He's very, very good.

He's a first-class man.

First-class man.

He'd be great.

Absolutely great.

That's what we need is a man like that coming in and taking over the hill.

I'm gonna stay around waiting for the board to try to do this.

I've got it in my mind that I'm probably gonna run to the Senate and make an announcement.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

I saw Spartan last night.

You know, I always liked Spartan.

He's a nice man.

But, uh...

But read, uh, the, uh, John, he should not run.

And the reason he should not run is that, oh, he's only, and I say only, but he's 73.

Well, he looks like 19.

Now, he doesn't talk that way.

He doesn't put that in writing.

But John Sparkman...

Why, they never put him on college.

He looks like death, Warren.

I don't know what it is.

There's some physical deterioration in the last month.

I don't know.

I've let it be four months.

I wonder if he wants to travel with John.

But he's got nice dental.

I think, from the standpoint of the candidate against him, he'd be better off against John than somebody else.

Despite the fact that he's a nice guy and supports us on Vietnam and a few other things.

But on the other hand, I looked at him as a man.

And there's a candidate for vice president who's got a bigger stall than I have.

My God, what has happened to this man?

He's got no election.

Well, how do you think the people in Alabama are going to respond to that in terms of rural areas?

Well, narcolepsy means that a man goes to sleep all the time.

And he sits up in his committee here and he says he's sound asleep.

A fellow friend of mine was driving along to work back home the other day, and he slept through two traffic lights.

And the fellow had to go up and knock on the window.

And they thought that was true facts.

He was driving the car?

I don't recall him going to sleep in the traffic light.

So that's really the problem, and it's too bad, but it's a fact, and it makes him look awfully old.

I can't believe it.

Awfully too bad.

Well, is he going to have a primary?

Yeah.

Is he going to have a primary?

Who's going to run against him?

Well, there are too few people already that are going to run against him.

I think it'll be better.

He's really strong.

You?

Yes, I'd rather leave him.

He's tough to beat.

He's tough, but on the other hand, he's too old.

He's too old.

That's all that's going to happen.

That's just permanent.

They can't put him on TV.

They can't put John Sparks on TV.

And then, can you imagine him out with people?

Meeting them face-to-face.

Well, they had, it's one of those things.

We've got that man up there.

He's too old.

He's got an old fart all over him now.

He's 80.

He's going to run again.

He should get out because he's got, frankly, a lot of steel in his head now.

But he does look old.

Yeah.

We've got the poor John.

I've never seen a man change so in a year.

Nothing's happened.

Uh, Mr. Grant, how's it going for you?

How's it going for you down there?

Well, it's an uphill.

It's an uphill.

Of course it is.

It's been an uphill.

Listen, of course it is.

But, uh, you've got to be kind to Wallace, of course, down there.

You don't want to cross him.

There's no reason for you to fight him.

I mean, uh... My brother said if it wasn't uphill, he wouldn't run.

Oh, George.

George said, what's he going to do?

He's going to support your...

You know it has.

You don't like John.

Run away.

That's a fucking business.

But Alabama deserves better, basically, than George Wallace and all that space.

And I'm proud to say, Jesus Christ, you've got number three and number four football teams in the country, and God Almighty, it's ridiculous.

It's ridiculous.

It's a properly coached group.

Not in this state.

Now, Allen, apparently, he's a good-looking guy.

He did.

But he's not smart, he's young, he's big-headed.

Huh?

He's big-headed.

And Jamal was his name.

But I don't think he's very smart.

Alabama has a tradition, it's a very great center.

And if that's smart, then Mr. Bryant is pretty good.

Now, Mr. Hill is a good son.

Oh, sure, oh, Lister, I remember.

I'm very influential.

Very influential.

Well, I've got to just go down there and fire you and just go like hell.

Get out in that country and convince them you're not a city boy.

I don't know, it's a, I can be done, too.

It's a, although, frankly, Alabama's more a city now than a country.

I, you gotta figure, I think, actually, if you look at Birmingham, it's a sophisticated place.

Well, being in it, I just, you know, Montgomery, I haven't been to, but I know it would be, I mean, that's very, a lot of people come to the Old South, right?

Yeah, the heart, what is it, the heart of the town.

Or it's the heart of Dixon.

Yeah.

Must be a lovely city, a lovely old town.

Well, that's the cradle of the Confederacy.

The cradle of the Confederacy.

His first White House in the Confederacy was that, and Jefferson Davis was sworn in.

Yeah.

Well, I've certainly enjoyed being here, and I appreciate very much the opportunity that you've given me.

Oh.

And we've given you a challenge.

It's a pleasure.

You had to fight some tough ones here, didn't you?

I did, yes.

Very, very tough ones.

You're the nations.

Strong.

It's been great to be on their team.

We hope you win.

Like you say, I didn't make it.

I have a little bit.

I'm going to be sure you get it.

It's one of them things we made over these days.

I just said it.

The mail was a great deal.

One thing we want to work this out.

Well, hey, uh, we were, uh, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the, uh, the,

Okay, sir.

Yes, sir.

Well, we were going to have a little, you know, secret press after.

Oh, yeah, I see that.

Well, I thought that if they just said it, we'd call off the subject.

I don't know why.

Well, Arch, I was impressed with what you were.

Well?

On the resignation, yeah.

That's all right now.

That's all I'm going to do.

The announcement for the Senate is on the 30th of July.

That's what I'm going to do.

And I understand that's clear to the department and everybody, right?

Well, that's correct.

This is the day that... Well, we thought it would be a good kind of a thing to do.

All right.

Well, I can't even say it.

First of all, I can't say what are your political plans.

So you're going to determine that.

All right.

Okay, well, I'll send that in.

Well, we'll work it out.

Sure.

That's changed this morning.

They just wanted to be sure.

Oh, God.

Well, thanks a lot.

I think so.

I don't mean to put you in our office meeting, but we handled it.

I'm not going to say we're going to run.

I'm going to go ahead and believe it.

The right thing was that you would do not 2% before time, before the economic policy, before Russia.

Well, I think you went.

And of course, we'll have some better things we won't do.

But you just let me see if we can get that.

It should go.

Well, you arranged for the half of the concept of the postmaster general.

I mean, I got that right.

You know, they haven't won for a while.

Their coach is also a, I'm just saying, a judge.

I'm Joe Joe.

Joe Joe.

Yeah, I remember him from years ago.

Yeah.

The goal could have been a Bears, Bears out of the seat.

And he's a fan.

I love him.

He's my boy.

Tell him I asked about me.

I don't press that.

All I ask is what happened in Alabama football.

I'll do it.

That's my best to your wife.

Thank you very much.

We'll, uh, go out to the right.

Thanks a lot.

Get out.

Nixon, Blount & White House photographer on U.S. Postal Service

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on October 29, 1971

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