Nixon, Colmer & Enger on Seabees and Busing legislation

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Well, how are you?

Good to see you, Bill.

You look good.

I love you.

All right.

See me.

Well, I'm a little more scared.

But we have a CP case.

I mean, I was, I used to, I was, the reason I was let in, and then I asked the president for regional action, is that, that issued an order to see the installation around Santa Barbara, Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, so they all went out there.

But, I have a word to you, I was in there, in an air, lots of white ones in there, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

Right.

Those guys were working at night.

Those lights on the coolers were going back and forth.

They didn't get a nap.

Heart attacks.

But they weren't fighting.

The heart attacks.

I'm at a present.

Most gracious of you to do this.

What picture do we want?

We obviously haven't seen any back crimes, so it's all overdue.

Thank you.

Bill is also seated.

Thank you.

And we've .

And you're going to put it where?

Hopefully .

Great.

Mr. Phillips, do you want to?

and the Memorial Commission, and he raised the money for this.

But a man that I knew within the city, he had a 22nd regiment.

His name was White, Commander White.

From Maine, he was an Albemarle.

Yes, he's finished, yeah, that's right.

He worked in St. Louis.

Well, I don't know what you're going to do with those.

This is how it will happen.

I'm delighted they're having this done because that's one of the great unsung groups.

Well, the Army engineers were great, too, but see, we should do it a little faster.

Mr. President, I just signed the bill.

All right, fine.

You all gather around here.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

There were many brave men at war, but there were none who attempted terror or courage.

I recall one day in particular, one night, there was a number of alert groups, varieties, bombers, rockets.

The airships were big, just as big as I am.

I got five feet through on the wall.

I couldn't see anything.

I'm proud to be able to see this.

I'm happy to be able to share this with my family and friends.

I'm very glad to be able to share this with my family and friends.

I have a very good memory.

Thank you.

They were really a tough bunch.

Right.

Sure, sure.

We'll see you later.

I don't know what it was.

Number one, this is a blessing.

You know I am.

I'm frequently urged to do it.

I don't want to do it unless it fits in with your thinking.

And I should not give you credit or discredit.

Well, no, I suppose you don't need to talk to me about this.

Yes, that's what I want.

That's what I'm afraid of.

Let me say, first of all, as far as my views are concerned, if we can't get this damn busing stopped,

legislation, which many think does not do, then we have to have a constitutional amendment.

Now that's where I stand.

I do agree with that.

The problem I have at the present time, though, is if you bring that amendment up and then have a vote where you don't get two-thirds, everybody will think that the country is that way.

I think it will hurt the cause.

In my view, I think you're better to keep the darn amendment out

And let us try to get the moratorium thing.

And if we fail, then the people will get so damn mad that eventually we'll have to get them out of there.

And this is the wrong time, in my opinion.

I'll talk to you very frankly.

That's what I think.

Yeah.

And he thought it would be helpful if we could pass it down.

But he doubted they could pass it.

No way.

No, but you and I, you talked for two years.

You, you, you.

And you see, we don't want to do something that's inept.

Now, of course, let me say from a solely political standpoint, to be candid with you, if you brought it up, we'd probably hurt our, help our republic.

Right.

Sure.

uh we had uh come on back here we had about 30 votes yeah uh on the other bill yeah but just uh but yes well i think it would be i don't know what did you do bill should be a different different thing i i meant it i just

I don't think it'd be much different, Bill, but this thing has bothered me, and as you know, I, as a matter of fact, have thought on several occasions.

And when you're going to call it up, I don't think he does either.

No, he didn't want to.

As a matter of fact, he did everything he could.

Don't do, uh, one other thing.

Yeah, yeah, that doesn't make sense to me.

I've got another bill.

A private bill.

Uh, for the relief of, uh, a private girl.

I mean, this is a dual bill.

Hey, my bill, I'm waiting about three years.

Frankly, the only reason I made it through here is that I'm anticipating that the department, the medical department, will actually be there.

I've spent about three years only, as I say, past the House twice, passed the report out to the Senate committee twice,

And finally, past this last session, this Kennedy's man down there, Farris, has something to do with democratic policy.

Now, you've got to clear this twice, both sessions.

And frankly, Mr. President, it's an unusual situation.

The choice came with some justification.

I'm going to buzz in with the details, but we don't think it does set a precedent.

We think under the compassion against the Texas city, blow up your mouth.

Now, without going into a lot of detail, this woman was a lieutenant in the Navy.

She did transfer about two months old to the Air Force as a captain in the Air Force.

She went out to Walter Reed.

She had an automobile like about 10 years prior to that.

At the time, she was the only way ever assigned to Iceland.

I knew it was a high school attack.

Great to swim on.

off on all of these.

And she had a cancer.

It was about a high.

And it meant that she must die.

And they weren't satisfied.

They wanted to do it again.

And her private doctor advised against it and talked with them and didn't make it.

They were under some risk and so on, and they said no.

When she got on that table, right there, healthy, what she was, a healthy woman, with the exception of this little eye trouble that she had.

And in 15 minutes, she was a wreck, a human wreck.

She said that it would mean that if she died too fast, she'd live with enough to adopt this

It's an unusual case, but it's one that I think is justified.

As I say, I've been waiting on it for about three years, and I would appreciate it if you could.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

It's down here.

It's down here, yes.

We've got to get it stamped out with the Defense Department and everything.

Okay.

Well, I got your point, Bill.

Yes.

I appreciate it.

Yes.

And then you want to go.

Well, the thing is this.

I just wanted to know that my daughter, Patricia, I can't go to every state.

In fact, I can't go to many other states, but

Mr. President, you are going to get a minimum of 70% of the vote in Mississippi.

Uh, we've got some complications down there.

Of course.

Jimmy's under running now.

Uh, this fellow Carmichael, who hasn't got a chance in the world, who's ever, ever been made...

Right.

That's where he's from.

I told you he's from Florida.

And McClellan.

Right.

The gentleman down there.

Oh, my God.

You'd have to be Mr. President.

Of course.

Why?

Have you been at all?

Sure.

He's just a Republican.

The chairman's administrative assistant is running for his seat.

Great.

He's a Republican.

Great.

I hope he wins.

And Jerry Ford is going to tell you.

I made a Republican.

He got up the old flag.

And likely because of this, he's done things.

So there's people who want to be here, Jim.

All right.

Now, what kind of a ballot do you have?

You have one for you and one for you, right?

And you don't have to pull one like those.

All right.

Yeah.

Right.

And Jim,

He must be particularly trying to do the thing.

But I know that the Democratic Organization down there is trying to do something.

Jim is going to be elected by the same vote you are.

Great.

I'm all for that.

Yeah.

Now, Jerry was going to talk to you about the possibility of having an appreciation down for me down there on October 1.

I took care of that.

That would be the height of my life.

But I realized that all these demands were made on you and so on.

So he was talking about either you make him a little tape for this or a telephone call at the dinner.

So he's going to mention that to you.

We'll cover it either way.

Let me suggest this.

If you wouldn't mind, so that I'll have representation.

Either of my daughters or Mrs. Fiction could come along.

Oh, that'd be great.

They could represent me everywhere.

And they could read the tape, read the message you sent to me, rather than do that.

Do that, but at least have that tape with you.

Oh, we have a tape, too.

Let's present this.

We want to show our support.

All right, let's do it the whole way.

We want to show our support.

Let's do it the whole way.

Somewhere in there.

And this is what I'm thinking.

If you could put a little plug for this boy, Trent, like my sister's drum or a plug, we can sing.

That'd be all right.

It's your dinner.

Ooh.

All right.

I'm sponsoring it.

All right.

This is a little gift for you.

It's a small thing for you.

It's a small thing.

But I thought that you'd like to have this as a medal of your years of service.

And it's only for special people.

Very few of them are coming to Congress.

I can't give it to anyone unless they've been chairman or retired.

I think you guessed it.

I'm going to try to get approval to send a letter.

But we will not receive any applications for a room beyond Augusta.

Get it done.

Get it out of there.

Okay, Bill.

Thank you again.

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Nixon, Colmer & Enger on Seabees and Busing legislation

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Also recorded on September 18, 1972

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