Nixon & Woods on fundraising and political strategy

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Oh, that's the one that I did today.

I felt terrible.

What's your time?

What's the same as you had before?

I don't know.

It's not like that.

It's not like I'm following you and all that.

You think you still got the buggy?

I don't know.

They'll check.

But you're not in fever, are you?

No.

It's not something to be concerned about.

It's all fever.

Many times it's just as bad that I can't get it.

At least if you have an infection that is serious, the fever thing, it's the thing to wipe on the hall.

If you have that, I wouldn't sit around the damn place.

Well, it was a long day yesterday.

I was just thinking, I sat with Steve last night at 500-12.

I spent a fair amount of time.

Did they have a big crowd too?

They had a very big crowd, yeah.

They had a fair crowd.

Illinois has a much more enthusiastic crowd than New York.

New York is always different, but they made a lot more money in New York.

Oh, I know.

Theirs was a bigger dinner.

See, Illinois had the Sun Drive.

I owe Willie.

He had a big dinner for himself.

Percy did that too.

Oh, if you do, he is a clog.

He is a clog.

He's a mistake.

And he thinks he's, you know, he is.

He really thinks that he's president sometimes.

Oh, he's lucky to be governor.

Yes, he is.

He probably is going to win.

He probably is.

We're trying to help him.

He's not a burden.

That I know.

But on the other hand, he has got about as much balls in prison for nothing.

You know, he just doesn't have that old...

he just has he just has no personality not at all you think of i was thinking of something you might work on i think people

I was told that, uh, Julie did a great job here.

Julie, what'd she do?

She got an arm's play in her visit to Illinois.

The Illinois State Journal in Springfield gave her a huge, a front page story, a full second page, and another half page story.

They said, Julie smiles, lends everybody's hearts.

She was a smash hit.

She was up there doing Calmer's thing, and the artists all said she'd been rid of it.

She was just as intelligent as she was.

Sounds fantastic.

And Mark said she came in there that night and... Mark was a dinner eater.

Well, a very tall man here and he had a couple tickets and I told him that I didn't think I was going to go and he had to.

So he gave them to Mark and Bill.

And Mary did actually come in here, too.

And Bunny invited me because New York... Yeah.

Yeah, Bunny was nice, too.

He said, have you done here?

Oh, I guess it wasn't money.

He bought that one off, you know, and invited me to come out, you know, which was a nice thing, you know, just to do his own thing.

I think he was working like 80 dollars.

He is someone who worked hard on that, isn't he?

Because he gave him just a thousand dollars, and he had more checks than today.

Out of New York.

It was the most successful financial of all.

My buddy did.

I did spend, you know, he wanted so much for me to sit at each table, I couldn't do that.

I never came to Chicago.

But I think going through the hall was better, and he shook hands with some of the people who worked so he could do.

Everybody gets $500 for a song.

But he knew we covered most of it.

He thought you did a magnificent job.

Well, I'm glad, because I want to say something.

I've tried not to rush him.

He's done Chicago.

I'm opposed to it.

I need to see how down they are and prepare something for them.

Well, we'll have something prepared for this.

There's no problem.

I don't want to get one ready.

There's a lot of people over there.

Yeah.

Well, I think Rosie is something different.

And I think maybe

I don't know how you could do it, but could we send a certificate of appreciation to the dinner chamber in each case?

Well, let me tell you that we have already gotten a letter from you to the dinner chamber and the woman with the chair in each case.

Plus, they're going to send them that with a picture.

Yeah, that's right, and it's got a kind of pole.

That's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right,

Your contribution and success are there in Los Angeles.

Why?

You came through loud and clear on a full-circle television in Chicago.

And the audience there loved you.

Well, several times here.

You can say that with regard to him.

You can say that with regard to me.

Both of them over there.

Uh, the entertainers.

Somebody... Somebody could have...

I refer to the entertainers each time.

You know?

Well, that's what we can do.

Well, sure, we've got three or four hundred people that drive betters around here, one way or another, than the government.

That's my point.

These are difficult to ride the Eads, I know.

Well, there's others.

There's teachers who didn't get a chance to be on them.

Yes.

That's my point.

I'm all for this.

It is right.

You made it an honor to be here.

Your presentation was an honor to be elected.

I am all straight forward.

Your support of our cause as we've got to be a critical option here.

Maybe you've got to put up with it.

I don't think so.

I don't think you need to do that.

You can put it with one personal regard, though.

One personal regard should always go on.

Well, I've had a bunch of routine meetings.

I don't think you need to do that.

And then a very old one, Pat Boone, who was in the office when I returned.

and hoping that your presentation will be back to the schedule permits.

Thank you for speaking.

You're related.

You're a... You're a cannibal.

You're related to absolute cannibals, sir.

And I'll get the whole thing.

We don't have to give it to them.

I don't think we need to send a letter to anyone who has just happened to be there.

No, no, no.

The speaker's in this instance.

I want someone to raise him for us.

Well, it's different.

But I don't want to go down and say that Starkey, Massachusetts, was a jackass.

What about Taraki?

Oh, yes.

Yes, he was very large.

You made your remarks more than generous.

The Iraqis, the Iraqis to me were, were much more reserved.

But I, it is the same on the street.

I can tell, I can tell, I can tell.

Oh, it's refreshing to meet them in that room.

There's a clean guy, you know.

Plays some clean movies.

Goes to church.

Got four lovely daughters.

Someone suggested, I disagree with his suggestion, but that he sent a letter to Avril Hammer on dating friends.

And I wasn't sending rainwater.

I don't know.

I'll find out who called.

They gave me a notice that he stopped.

What would you say?

It doesn't sound totally insincere and political.

Totally.

Because in the first place, he was saying that we were going to go to China and saying we were overlooking the Russians.

And then the next thing he said, you know, he totally can't.

Um, did you have a chance to talk with Pete Brown?

Yeah.

He was here for that demo.

Well, I didn't talk to him, but then he came through the line and said, so glad to see you.

I'm a friend of Ken, and I introduced you to him.

He seemed pleased then.

But I was, I was very gracious to him, you know what I mean?

You know, most of that happened preceding my notice.

That's all he ever does.

And afterwards, I'm usually getting caught with an Indian or some other Indian person.

But I didn't say, uh,

And Joe would call me from the National Committee and said that Eleanor Rain called her from California to say a friend of hers.

You know, she said one of those Republican women.

And she said that a friend of hers, who was a very good, dear friend and somebody she believed had a husband who was a PO deputy.

And in a recent letter, they think he was just trying to get word to you that you're doing all right, because he said, and nobody they know like this, he said, I want my very, very best to go to Uncle Dick and Aunt Patty.

I certainly admire the work he is doing.

So what they felt he was doing was, he was going to get through if he said you're doing all right.

Did they know?

In fact, we have a level of intent there.

Yeah.

The whole time.

I've been down to the left now.

Thank God if they don't play...

I'll bet it's you there.

Is it often full?

Well, I've had to listen to the guy, and I've got a lot more...

I had to recruit myself.

Did you?

Well, I didn't have it.

I was just sending recommendations that I'd like to have people... Yeah.

I want to get Marchi out of here again.

Okay.

Now, the thing that you suggested, we have Rappaport.

I wondered about how two New York political classes... Oh, they get along.

That's very appropriate.

Nelson is the governor and went to Latin America, so...

I know, he has to come, right?

Mark John didn't come very easily.

He's the head of Nassau.

He's a county executive now.

He's just not a part of it.

No, I know that.

I know, but I... Not at all.

Harry Sears.

Yeah, that's what both of them are.

Yeah.

Harry Sears is going to be our New Jersey manager.

He's a nice guy.

I love him.

I love what he does.

No, I don't think he is.

Well, we're going to do a great job.

He's going to do a really fine job.

We are getting to bed, aren't we?

I'm going to cut what we have to do next.

Cut.

We've got too many people on.

But those, I have Margie Ayotte here who's not on, but I did question whether there's a certain way to have him.

I would hate to extend the invitation to somebody in November and then redo it in December.

All right, don't redo it then.

I can leave him off and just have him another time.

So we don't have the next dinner.

There'll be another dinner.

There'll be another dinner, sure.

There'll be another dinner.

It's all right if you don't mind it.

I just think it looks a little bit eager to invite him in November and then again in December.

Good.

We'll find another reason to have a dinner.

All right, don't have it.

Whatever options.

She looked very nice.

I had very little chance, though, and I'm sitting at the table saying, because Bob Holt was in his monologue and I couldn't talk.

Oh, you couldn't talk.

I couldn't talk.

You know what I mean?

Did you hear, were you there for the part where Bob Holt told them that he was going to, you know, he was going to leave and go to Chicago as you were on?

And then as soon as he got through in Chicago, he was going to fly right back to New York.

Were you there at that point?

He was going to fly right back to New York for Lindsey's virus.

Because he changed everything, so he changed everything.

I can't judge them all.

These bombs got the guts to stand up in this place.

It doesn't run as long as there was a sponsorship.

Hardly lose.

They're being sponsored right now.

It's a crime.

The Democrats, of course, they do it all the time.

They're like, yes.

I mean, he's a famous sergeant.

He's a man.

Some of those are so bad, I don't listen to any of them.

Totally, that's just what you just said, they continue to be sponsors.

A lot of them have to worry about money.

And it's good that he's still popular.

And I think he really typically feels that he now should and can and should do something for his country.

What do you think?

But he felt pleased about it.

But he was very pleased.

It was sort of awkward.

They didn't have any dinner yet.

Well, it's awkward when you keep doing it that way.

And I heard Stella guess, and they sat down and had dinner.

But he thought it was great, and I'm not sure that probably if you've gone in a New York dinner as late as Chicago and you get more enthusiasm, I think people first walk in and sit down.

They're not as... Well, he thought everybody was really good with it.

It was a better set up in Chicago.

They had a better room and podium and...

And then the audience spread out in New York.

But Chicago's always a good audience.

Chicago's always a good audience.

Well, there was a Desi Towne in New York.

It was about a week down the line.

Or a raw town in New York.

New York just turned into Mississippi.

New York turned into Mississippi.

There wasn't no one on the board.

It seemed plodding louder than somebody at the next table.

Right.

It was still there.

That's right.

Nixon & Woods on fundraising and political strategy

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on November 10, 1971

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