Conversation 804-001

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But that little son of a bitch, that's got to worry him a little, because I was hanging on to it.

I've been his only friend in the world, actually.

It wasn't long in this country.

No, the trouble with the things that we get here, I don't want to pile up a lot of crap in the street.

I mean, let me say, that's going to be taken on space too, Bob.

You know, I said, we know what you need to do here.

And I used to own a lot of them.

Now, when you go to the campaign, the kind of crap that you put up, it's like, well, that's different.

You're doing that for other purposes.

And they'll run a little thing, and that'll go in the middle of the radio talks.

Ron's all set for that, and he's got to, you know,

Ray, incidentally, asked if he could go up to Camp David.

He said he can work twice as well up there as he can down here.

So I could take along some people, too.

And possibly go up so we make the bill-signing point.

With Ray on the radio addresses and Bill and John on reviewing these 141, whatever it was.

around the range possibly to have all those things on my desk and I'll be slipped into some place and the press can take a picture for them.

Here.

Yes, sir.

Before we go.

What's your thought on going to Kansas City?

No, sir.

Wednesday.

Go ahead and hand it.

I'm going to go.

Do you want to go early?

No.

No, wait.

I had no interest in going there early.

I mean, I'd go about 5 o'clock tomorrow or something like that.

Well, I would say 4.30.

4.30 is a good time.

Get out there at 5.

All right.

And, uh...

And the radio, do you, we ought to, we've got a lot of time, so whatever you want to ask, you can post on us.

We're not waiting until this middle of the week, are we?

Not until Saturday.

I agree.

You don't care, whatever you want.

Well, if you don't mind, or...

Either noon or, it's either two or three.

They're, they're alive.

I would frankly prefer to get to them.

They're not earlier than that.

They're not, they're not active.

They're a little later than they are.

Sure.

So I don't, I don't mean, I mean that earlier than five.

I'd prefer two or three per gentleman.

All right, five.

Okay, well that's the plan.

And that's much better because of the cycle that it gets, it repeats over.

Then the veterans thing on Sunday, would you also prefer that earlier?

I would.

Okay.

I wouldn't worry about the shirt and all that.

I wouldn't have needed it.

Well, do it at 3.

That's churches over in the two churches over on the west coast.

That's 11.

That's church 9.

I want to do it.

You better do it earlier.

Why not do it at 10 in the morning?

That suits me actually.

And then let it run in the West.

Yeah.

You know, the veterans thing was a... Yeah, I'd love to get that over with.

You won't get any live audience in the West with that, does it matter?

You will.

There's some people... Yeah, I suggest it.

You might make it 10.30.

All right.

In other words, shove it up a little.

You get a little audience in the West.

The other thing would be that it's really a Monday's speech, so maybe you ought to do it Sunday night.

just before you leave or something.

It's not a good money plan.

That's right.

It doesn't make any difference.

It doesn't make any difference, even for me.

So it's Sunday morning.

Get a ride on it.

I don't think it's much of a live audience.

Nope.

You're not after a live audience on this one, really.

It's a newspaper story for Veterans Day.

You don't want to do the wrong thing or anything on Veterans Day to me.

No, sir.

Better than to pay the money.

You're going to New York.

You can go to Arlington.

You can go to Arlington first if you wanted to.

Good old Carol Hansen came through.

Carol Hansen is the president.

She's retired now.

She's the president of the League of Families, POW-wise.

Mrs. President Nixon today was assured to vote for the retiring board chairman of the National League of Families American Christian Women's Nation.

Mrs. Carol Hanson of El Toro, California said Nixon is her choice for president again because he said he would not leave the fate of the Christians to the good will of the enemy.

She said the proposals of George S. McGovern would, quote, dishonor this country and abandon the men like my husband to the mercy of an enemy that has shown no compassion.

I don't want my husband's sacrifice to have been in vain.

That's crazy.

You know, I just heard that phrase, obviously, that to the mercy of God, not in the original, but it says it so deep, so clearly, and so opposite to him.

I don't want us to get in this business.

I'm rather sorry we've opened up this subject too much about what events we'll do around here, because you're going to find me loaded with crap like I was yesterday.

Don't do it.

I just assure you, I know it won't do any good.

I'm doing enough.

You know, it's about at this point, there is one story a day.

Well, that's, well, Chuck's line here that turns to him as a, is a one, he's looking for a main story of what you can do the best you can sometimes.

It's hard on the channel because there's a story in there.

Could you imagine that if you see anyone want to ask me about it, go ahead.

It's not going to be the cash, it's the cost of living costs.

Yeah, they're pretty much the same.

I'm not going to be with the group of laborers.

We've just not done that for the health.

Tomorrow you should meet with Weinberger, Schultz, and Stein.

And Weinberger will read on his instructions to cut all the budget requests across the board for preventive spending and ceiling legislation.

Well, I checked out earlier.

And the point is, the point is, meeting with them is for the burgers.

There's a goddamn thing a wine burger can tell me I don't know.

Now, he's only looking at it, I don't know.

So the wine burger's got some base to walk out on.

Oh, all right, all right.

Maybe that's the, that way may be all right.

Ask Earl.

That's up to Earl and I.

Let's leave all those synonyms and names to Earl.

Because his, his guy don't know how to do it.

So I'm going to send him to Earl, but he doesn't want us to get, you see, there's a point here that's a little too subtle for you to chuckle or inquire, and I'm saying, there goes straight at Earl.

You realize, and I've talked to Earl about it this morning, we fought.

You do not want, before the election, to say that we're going to make the cuts anyway.

Do you realize why?

Next question.

Well, what way are you going to go?

Sure.

And Cap is the kind of a guy who'd go out and say, let's cut the school lunches.

He really would.

Well, Cap wanted to go out and put out, he is dying to have an order that this 25 cut or something, whatever it's going to be.

type stuff, and before the election.

He thinks it'd be a great move.

And I got into an argument with him with Stephanie a couple of days ago.

I said, sure, it'd be a great move.

AGW will announce what they're going to cut.

All milk to needy children.

The transportation will announce what they're going to cut.

They're going to stop construction on the subway here, and if it falls in, why the hell say they're sorry?

There's no more money to keep them from falling in.

They're murderers.

You can't do it with a drop.

You can't go right down.

It's only three weeks down the road, by the way.

Oh, hell yes.

And then he's got to... That's all right, though.

It doesn't remind me, but we've got a very little plan.

This veteran thing may not be a bad idea.

I don't know.

Not on Veterans Day, though?

No, the next day.

Tuesday morning.

You want me to sign the bill?

Well, there's apparently a bunch of different veterans legislation items, and his idea is to stock it all up, sign all of it, and have these two or three hundred of our O'Neill group of young veterans in it.

and you talk to them a little about their service to the country like you did to the labor kids the young labor for the person that is good kind of television footage and it's it's a doing a rally like the pows or the young labor people without going out of the house but for wednesday he's at the press conference

Why don't you, why don't you lay a, I lay that to rest with everybody.

It's a, Chuck's the only one who knows.

He goes, he'd have a press conference every week because he thinks I do them so well.

But you see, he doesn't understand.

You've got to do them when it's the right time.

And he says, you don't have any illusions about a press conference.

No, sir.

Do you really?

No.

You know what this is going to be about.

There isn't going to be anything but that goddamn Watergate.

I have no question about that at all.

It's the most ridiculous thing in the world.

Chuck says the President can talk about his priorities in the upcoming Congress and avoid talking about Vietnam.

I think I'm just too sensitive.

He totally overlooks the fact that you'll spend all your time talking about telephones.

No questions at all on that, and it will only hurt, it will only raise the issue.

And Sarah will then scream at you about achieving to do something.

Well, so will Clark Mullen.

That's right.

You can't keep him out of it.

That's right.

No, it's not going to be an unmeaning press conference.

Be sure that isn't talked around by the staff here.

Right.

I'll give a press conference.

And he says, if you don't do a press conference, you should meet with Richardson, Hudson, Ehrlichman, Moynihan, and congressional leaders to talk about welfare reform without fattening.

It gets people off the welfare rolls and working.

No.

Another opportunity for the president to go out and breathe in the press room and restate his views on welfare.

Sure.

See, he does not understand that you cannot walk into that press room and not answer questions.

I mean, what I mean, and limit the briefing to that, not when you're two weeks from the election.

You see, you cannot limit it unless you have a major announcement.

If you went in and said, I'm going to go to China, and here's how to walk out, walk out, you can do it.

You see, he doesn't want that.

He wants me to go in and answer questions.

He wants Hodgson to do the briefing.

But there's nothing for you to say.

I mean, you go ahead and state your views on welfare and the instructions you've issued to the government.

Well, the President of the United States said, Jesus.

Well, the other point is, early in the case, we're ready with that.

Do you understand?

We are ready to know what you say about a subject like welfare.

Do you know how complicated it is?

We're going to have a program here.

I don't want to get sucked into something during the election time.

It's just a defense pleasure to be here.

I'm not ready to do that.

That's not ready.

That's awful.

I know it will work.

I don't know how it is.

Sunday the 29th, you'd like to go to church in Annapolis.

No.

Committees.

No.

You can't use the service academy.

Monday meeting the Price Commission for a review of their work to date.

Well, we'll talk about continuing to hold the lines in Brunswick.

There's a tough briefing afterwards that talks about the President's determination to...

I don't mind that one.

That one I'll do.

The Price Commission.

That might be a possibility.

Well, I haven't met the...

I've met the pay board, but I haven't met the Price Commission.

I'll stay with that.

The Church, I'll have to determine myself what we do.

We'll probably go to the Gettysburg Church, which I think is better anyway.

That's this Sunday?

No.

That would be the following.

29.

Dr. O'Hare?

Yeah.

What are you planning to read in the present?

This Sunday?

Yeah.

10 to 3?

5.

You don't need to go to church this Sunday.

I don't think you need to go to church this Sunday.

You ought to go to church the next Sunday of this year, so we don't get sold a lot before election.

If you're going to do that, maybe you ought to go this Sunday instead of the next Sunday.

Well, if it's a regular radio, we're going to make the radio 10 o'clock.

Okay.

Yeah.

Rather than going just a week before, then skip the next week.

Two weeks in a row, the church is going to look that odd.

If you go to Gettysburg this time, then to church out west two weeks later, it won't look odd.

I don't think you need to go at all until the one out west.

Maybe you're right.

It's interesting, Billy has, I haven't asked him because I don't want to get him thinking.

He has ample opportunities, never raised the thought that you ought to go to church.

And we've talked about a lot of things where he could easily say, I think it would be a good idea, but he's never raised it.

We're just, house is just finishing up.

I can report on that sale.

We'll be sending it to the Senate on the 4th of April.

meeting on the budget, there's a can of worms because you can't turn the cap loose before everybody on the budget can.

If you did that, you'd have to put John in.

John considered what, if anything, he could do with that too.

I think you ought to do it.

I just have a view of that.

The one thing I wonder is if you want to do it, want to think about doing it on Thursday night and go ahead and do it even if you do the Vietnam thing, would you definitely cancel it?

We'll never be ready for that.

You don't need to be concerned about that.

They aren't going to make that deal that fast.

I was talking to Alex a couple of hours ago.

He's in three or four days.

Well, Alex's judgment is that it might come off, but it isn't going to come off that quick.

I mean, they're just going to, here's what's going to happen.

Tuesday is going to happen.

It's not that he's never been triggered.

Henry's going to have to meet with Dr. O again.

He may have to do that, and I approve under these circumstances.

If it's a quote and it's a deal, he goes from the end to end and sees him there, and then goes back and sees you.

You're delayed a day, but you're right there.

He goes from the end to end and sees him, and then back to side, back to side, and then up to end line.

Yeah.

And then back here.

But you see, it isn't going to be that.

That's not going to be, because he's got still three days.

I don't think it's going to be that.

Depends how long he has to stay in Anaheim.

He has some money.

You'll know.

You won't, because tomorrow will be the first three to four bloody days that you should have used some money to get out there and save him.

And have saved him.

Could you drop down?

He's at the right level.

Sorry, I'm kidding.

I'll let you call him.

Thanks.

All right.

Yeah, the guy tells me I have a little dream just very similar to this.

It's $7 worth.

The guy tells me it's worth $1,200.

And it's over here.

I'm going to step out of that place.

These are not mine.

These belong to Nellie.

Who are they?

She brought them back.

but she's the one who bought the line.

Now he has bought them.

That is worth very much.

I think it's about $300,000.

Did you get that memo from Harvard?

From Harvard?

No, Rosewoods.

John Erickson's in here now.

He didn't have it yet.

A couple of suggestions with regard to .

It might be useful to have some meeting with Stein.

He said, why not?

What I'm getting at is I'm told on your strategy, which is totally fine.

I'm not indicating what we're going to do before the election.

It's totally right.

We cannot indicate cuts.

We're just going to leave that to everything.

Well, we're studying the matter.

We're doing the best we can.

It's in a very tough part of the solution.

But clearly, is that a useful thing to do?

In fact, Colson's going to have a candidate.

Well, we didn't have any.

No, that was it.

I don't explain to you the reason that I wouldn't have had the meeting, which I didn't want to mention earlier.

I can't go to Kevin because he's going to be around.

See?

But Chuck changed that to Weinberger, Chelsea, and Stein.

Now, what is your view?

Is it useful or is it... You can't do things that basically are paid mechanics.

If, on the other hand, this is a useful meeting that purposes me so that somebody could go out and read the press, we need it.

I'd do it.

Otherwise, I wouldn't do it.

Well... We don't need it for a useful purpose.

It's that among you.

Supposing that we were to have a meeting of that group at Camp David, say, for dinner Thursday night, apart from you,

And then, to the pool on Friday, I was able to say, well, you know, we had all those bills, and these fellows were at Camp David, and we were working away on this, and inferentially, you were working away on this, and they've given the president a lot of grist for his mill over the weekend, and it's a very tough problem, and so on and so on, and lay the foundation that way.

Now, that's a lot better

in a way than having the meeting here or having just you go up there with uh uh it shows some an assemblage of things no that's right well the reason is that i have no comparison no problem no problem at all but uh so if you could do uh get them up there and have a meeting

Yes, I have Weinberger's now.

It was a draft that was a real blast.

Yes, but there's a chance here now to do our conventional close of the

Closer to the camera.

Roger stayed behind for a minute.

I got it.

My point is that after all the agonies we went through on salt and the Shanghai communication, there wasn't any reason that you're not going to have it on this one.

No, not a chance.

Not a chance.

The other part of the answer may have to lack the other way.

But basically, his reaction, and Alex Johnson's, and the others are paying vacation.

The deal is a good deal for everybody's consent, right?

And that's why they gave him the reaction that we did.

That's right.

No, and he dropped off.

He did make a dry run.

He did very well, incidentally, on the trade thing, exactly the way he wanted.

Now, as I understand it, they will be meeting

for the first time tomorrow.

That'll be the inheritance.

Although, could I just guess this, Henry is not, he's a fine negotiator, but sometimes he's not a very good poker player.

You know, he's, it's hard, he's always thinking of the deal, what it is, and he sometimes tells people too soon.

I would, if he thinks of the political,

is gonna be one that you can buy, I would throw that in the pot right away.

I would, let me look at it another way.

I would say, Mr., I would put it that, I'd put the political one as not something they had agreed to.

It's something the president is insisting upon.

You can say that they are still talking about the coalition government and all that stuff.

But here, as we finally got this, the president has said, this is our position.

We will not go any further at all.

And then say that the president has laid out as a condition that there will be no coalition government.

Use the term in fact or in appearance.

In appearance or in fact.

You see, what I'm getting at is,

Then, when he does show Pugh the paper, it'll look at, Pugh will say, Jesus Christ.

I like this talk about, that's leaving out of state or someplace, that it is a coalition, because Pugh sees it.

He will find that it's a hell of a lot better than what he thought it would be.

Do you agree with that?

No, I hope Henry's going to do it that way.

He ought to get into the security things, the tough things, and then put the grease around it.

to say that we, that this is something I am insisting upon, and he thinks he may be, we're trying to try to sell that to the North Vietnamese.

Do you understand?

I don't think he should present that as something they've agreed to.

You've got to say, we've got to bargain for this, and this is what the president's insisting upon.

This is what's to say the president figured out this for him.

You know, something like, he thinks this is the point we're going to live with.

gives you total charge, and it's not a coalition government, which is what you want, and has the base future South Vietnam, the side of the South Vietnamese.

But we need some help from you to make it.

But on the other side, in order to get this, we want, we're going to insist on this, but we don't.

But this is going to be awful hard for the North Vietnamese to change.

See?

That's the tactic I think ought to be used on this.

Rather than going in there, full blown and giving and that.

You know how old we are.

You start here, so I will start right here.

See what I mean?

Don't be too forthright about it.

Henry's good at that.

Just tell him this is one time he shouldn't be.

But if you don't agree, don't tell us.

No, I agree completely.

That's exactly the way I would do it.

Right.

We don't know whether we can get this, but this is what the president's going to insist on.

You've got to help us.

The president's directed that you insist on this, and there's not going to be any coercion.

But in order to get this, we need your help on the security.

Basically, this is what Avery's got to weigh in hard and sit on down and do something that's

David, we'll plan to meet you three days a week.

Yes, sir.

That's the current plan.

And you'll probably need every bit of it.

Three days to an hour or anything like that?

No, we'll meet one or three days a week or two.

And he'll probably need a day in between.

But he's going to have to insist on a reaction so he can get Sullivan to be at the end of Bangkok to cut them in and get Hoppy back to Seoul to get the pot cut in.

I would not tell the Koreans goddamn thing.

Well, they don't do that.

That's right.

He'll only do that if the Jew buys initially.

He doesn't notice.

That's right.

I just say that I'm obviously worried about that.

They are, sir, but it's well to keep them quiet.

Actually, I thought he was thinking of this for next weekend.

This is getting... No, he had it for Thursday.

I like your plan.

Let's do it.

We'll have a veto to announce tomorrow.

Okay, your plan of taking them up to the candidate and having them do that.

They're all going to go over to the Reverend Sherry Hagen and everything.

I imagine that.

I know Schultz and Weinberger are.

It doesn't matter, really.

Uh...

They said, I want people on the helicopter, but I don't have to talk to them.

Sure.

We're going to be on the helicopter.

We have two helicopter seats, so we have to show a swagger, go by helicopter to Camp David.

You see what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Well, if you weren't thinking of anything, send them back.

Oh, I was thinking of dinner meetings and sending them back.

Because there was a meeting, and then send them back down.

Good.

Which is better.

I don't think you want to get all those people staying.

Oh, no.

Right.

Good.

It would take them up when you go up, same hour.

So it looks like everybody's going with a lot of suitcases and stuff.

And that makes them go with me.

Go with you.

Yeah, and that makes the meeting with you.

Yeah, well, then you can stay the rest of the time with them.

That's right.

Then, I would suggest that... And tell them I want you both to meet separately and give you recommendations.

Fine, fine.

That's what they're going to do.

Then, Philadelphia trip, we'll work the pool.

I'll work the pool.

Then you won't be able to.

Yeah, I can come back on the press line as far as that's concerned.

How the hell is the press going to get in there?

Yeah, I mean, I'll go back to here.

And then I'll go back up there.

Sure.

But I'll get plenty of exposure to the press.

I can schmooze around the press corps while they're in Philadelphia, as far as that's concerned.

And I'll pass it.

That's a good way to do it.

It'll get a bigger play doing it that way than doing it obviously.

And you're overwriting your Philadelphia story on that.

My Philadelphia story is not a story.

It's a picture.

I really think it's a picture you're bringing up, Jerry.

Okay.

I'll get it out in one way or another.

Because what we're trying to do is damp off this president defeated by senatorial vetoes.

That kind of stuff.

Then, Monday, again, I can hit it with selected press people on the way to New York.

Tuesday, we're going to have vetoes.

And he suggested, and I don't quite think it's a good idea, that you make the veto announcements on Tuesday.

Who's Tuesday?

Colson.

You just go in the press room and say, you have my veto message, my big concern here is taxes, and then out.

I know everybody thinks that's a good idea, but I do not think that I can go into that press room to clean out the election, because I can't go in there without running a very serious risk of being tackled by one of the maniacs.

Oh, mull them out for somebody.

Yeah, I see.

That'll be the story.

Yeah.

Of course, that's all very interesting, but what are you going to do about your dirty age?

Yeah, I get it.

I get it.

Colson doesn't understand.

Well, I didn't either.

I missed the point.

Okay.

We can't have another grace conference before the next year.

Thank you.

But the main reason is that will be the news.

I see that.

Okay, well then we can...

But I'll do this.

I'll radio you.

All right.

I'll make a radio statement.

All right.

On all the veto things, as I told you, I will make a radio statement.

Okay.

Five minutes or something of that sort.

That'll get it right.

Okay.

That'll get it right more than these assholes will write it.

Good.

And you go out and make a statement.

Okay.

A radio statement.

Very good.

Now, let's go ahead.

What was the other case you wanted to ask me about?

you think we ought to sign the veterans bill getting two or three hundred young our young veterans the gi bill it's a it's a pretty good one apparently there's several other veterans yeah there's a cemetery bill and put them all together his idea was to do it on tuesdays

Oh, I think so.

You get the veterans for Nixon.

They're just like that young leader for Nixon.

I think he asked them not to wear badges this time.

Well, I don't know.

I don't think it's going to get much of a play.

I don't mind trying.

No?

See?

I don't mind trying.

Try it.

OK.

If we had got any help that day, that Tuesday.

Yeah.

That was the idea, was to do that Tuesday morning.

You know, be at York.

And that'll ride along with the defense.

And that's the picture, signing a bill.

Which is good, too.

Yep.

Take care of these good young men that serve their country and support them and other people.

Now, Wednesday, then, radio.

Which one will be radio?

Education for Wednesday.

Good.

Hopefully.

That'll be great.

Yeah.

I'll have to have to keep the schedule totally free, Bob.

I don't want to see it on Tuesday morning, but I will have to have that draft Tuesday morning, first thing, John.

We're going to live off on that, and not the supplemental notes.

Yeah, you've got a veteran's speech right now, and you've got a, are you seven?

I don't care.

New majority speech?

For Eldridge, and I've got to look over to Kevin.

But that's long.

Saturday.

All nine.

What is today?

Monday, Saturday.

What do I do tomorrow?

Sunday.

That's what I'm working on tomorrow.

Okay.

I figured we'd get it done.

And if you get the better of something over here, I'd look at it.

All right, now, okay, that comes up.

Now, the present plan would be to possibly schedule on Thursday of next week a trip to Appalachia.

On the Kentucky side.

And eject to see whether or not a plane could get to that airport.

on that it should take five minutes to get into an airport close enough to there to get there because you can get into uh and then i thought we could put out a hell of a statement in appalachia and then we'll be hitting that whole area that's where you would put on a statement and it would be my idea

Yeah.

Your statement.

Yeah.

What we have done in these various areas and what we can do.

We get Bob Bird to campaign with us.

campaign with the government.

I'd like that.

He campaigned with us.

Kentucky?

Coming again.

We'll be around the West Virginia border.

That would be, presumably, the only problem I see in that area would be whether or not they'd have an auditorium.

That's the other thing.

Let's see what we've got in there.

It has to be an auditorium that is of 5,000 or above.

You can't go to any of the rest of them.

It should be as small as a real machine at this point.

Okay.

Sounds fine.

I'm doing this for a very personal reason.

I work sometimes other than that.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, sure.

What about New York on Monday in terms of speech material?

Do you have a theme and all that that you want to do?

The theme I want for New York is just basically a general look at the future.

I don't want to do more than that.

We cooked up the idea of showing the Connolly half hour in the time just before you get there.

Because these are people who will all miss it.

It'll be on at that trigger.

And that will really steam up that audience.

But whatever you are going to say, yeah, whatever you're going to say would have to complement it.

No, he'll say all negative things.

Sure.

And I have to come in and speak about looking to the future.

Well, that's why I asked.

I'm going to be looking to the future for the next four years.

I'm not going to make any records to the other side of the road.

Yeah.

I'm going to talk only about the future.

building a world of peace, prosperity, and how do we go over to Peter's?

Well, we could do this.

If you wouldn't mind sitting in a holding room for a half hour while that's on, we'd have our press corps captive.

And we'd set the table early, and the press corps would have already seen it.

The press won't be at Rockefeller's place any time.

They're not allowed there.

Well, I'm going to try to get them in there to see them.

I'm going to try to get them in there to see them.

The only problem is he doesn't leave time for the cheers that he's going to get.

He had a good projection so he could stop the film.

And I always come on and I expose these things.

Thank you very much.

You won't have to work for, you know, the blinders at all.

I don't want to.

These pieces have got to all be that way.

And that's what I had planned in Kentucky.

I mean, just a warm tribute to John Sherman Cooper, right?

And Appalachia and the fact that they've given us a strong support.

She said John Sherman Cooper.

I would say that.

Tomahawksie Winchester.

I think that's it.

My thoughts, John, as to my own personal appearances will be all positive.

I agree with that, absolutely.

Well, in fact, I think it would be fatal.

if we latch into a stump speech pattern, because the press will chew us up.

It's got to be very lofty in the... Well, actually, the kind of thing which doesn't send the audience is like the...

It's a fundraising speech, but it's the right thing to do.

But that's it.

They have nothing to cheer about.

What was the thing about reading a speech?

No.

On and around.

You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't anticipate those kids that are in front.

You can't anticipate a possible attack from all directions.

I don't want to read none of that.

There's nothing good to read.

Not on and around.

I approve of the 1529.

Because we're not doing this for anything except the people that are there.

through reading their speeches on the radio.

And what else is there?

Well, you have this thing of...

The welfare meeting, well, he did agree with me for a reason.

He suggested a welfare meeting where we get at Richardson and Moynihan and this and that, and I say to develop a welfare program without fat, a virgin can't insult Moynihan that way.

I don't think we're ready to say what the hell about that.

So I disagree with that.

Do you agree?

Yes, I'm ready to get into that right now.

Well, in welfare, I think all we can say is they killed it.

The other one was down the following week, that one day, to meet with the Price Commission for a review of their work today, which he hasn't done.

And then Rumsfeld would go out and have a tough briefing about the President's determination of the prices.

That's good.

That was fine.

That's perfect.

Well, he thought he had it from Monday the 30th, but it depends on how the rest of that Monday.

Oh, the following.

Yeah.

Oh.

You're pretty, you could do it Friday the 27th without that answer.

Yeah.

My advice is we have a CPI coming out right in there somewhere.

We have one more CPI before the election.

Yeah.

CPI is Friday the 20th.

It's this Friday.

Yeah.

The GMP's tomorrow, and then the CPI's the next day.

Yeah, one more CPI.

So can you talk about that?

I think that's fine, as long as I'm meeting after it, not before it.

How about next Friday?

Isn't that a pretty good time?

Next Friday.

That's a common Friday.

Next up?

A week.

No, a week.

A week after the CPI.

All right.

This Friday, you've got a revenue check.

All right.

That gives you a full week next week.

That's, you've got a program that runs you right through next week.

And then the following week, the last week here, that kind of runs out of it.

Of course, the president, he has the opportunity to meet in the East Room with a group of young voters, so the president's probably getting out of the vote next week.

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

That's just exactly the wrong thing to do.

Use the East Room.

want to do and that's that's all well he has some others that can't work you can't meet with the best people in our budget we're not really discussing the best budget it shouldn't be that one all history's gone to particular and not in the context of these austerity meetings that sends a rock that's another reason to take another context with what's going on vietnam people think it's about that and they're right yeah

You cannot discuss defense.

Do you know what the hell's going to happen in Vietnam?

Does the picture of a substantial change then?

We open.

All of the defense department will find a way to stop it very soon.

We've got a heavy loss.

Well, I don't know about the meetings here, but you're pretty well filled up, aren't you?

You see, if you went down to Kentucky, Kentucky would be a very enthusiastic, you know, there were all the others and all that sort of thing.

And that's what the number one, but I'll just go down there and give that a little looker.

It's about that idea that if you want economy, don't invent a Kentucky Jew.

That's right.

They can request it.

They heard that you ran it in New York and they missed it and could we run it here?

What do you think of that?

Sure.

Right before I get there.

See, then that gets in the blood of the punter.

And I can come on at a high level.

So I'm going to tell you where we go from here in a few plus days.

That's the thing, John.

We don't have to think in terms of the rallies.

The hell with the press on that.

We don't have to think in terms of the rallies of making hard news, sir.

I mean, we're making the hard news with radio.

Well, every other way.

Every other way.

The rally basically is a, they call it a stump speech.

A stump speech can be one way or another.

The way I can speak, like I did in Georgia or something, I don't make any hard news with that.

But I mean, just the whole thing, they don't like it.

Well, you've got talk.

It's very good.

Off-the-cuff type remarks in Michigan, in Texas,

in Georgia, just sort of from the heart kind of stuff.

That's what I was trying to do.

It doesn't make news.

That's why they all miss out.

You're settled down.

You're not waving your arms.

You're talking to them presidentially.

You're telling them about the tough problems.

I used the same style pretty much in the fundraiser too.

Yeah, although that was a little bit more...

of a speech.

These others have been kind of remarks, you know, sharing your problems, the kinds of things you've been deliberating on, your reasons.

I would say that one in Los Angeles was more like that when it was more of a conversation.

I didn't have the television problem there.

But I think that's what you do.

But I think you can do that.

It's going to be difficult.

before with all the young people in front yelling for more years.

I mean, difficult to quiet down, but maybe they will.

It doesn't have to be on their subject.

You know, Matt, when you go to Appalachia, if you drop a statement on promised Appalachia, you don't have to talk about Appalachia.

No, I'm not going to talk about Appalachia.

I'm going to make this standard speech about the future.

You know, about what we're going to do about peace, what kind of world we're trying to build, what we're going to do about the economy, what about opportunity, making this a better country, love of God.

That's what it's all about.

That's what they want to hear.

You were up the other day at Independence Hall.

Is that a symbol of American ideals and all that stuff?

This is prices, revenue-sharing stuff.

Pretty good.

The Constitution begins by saying, we the people.

What this revenue sharing bill says is we believe in the people.

Is that for you to say?

No, that's for you to say.

I hope he hasn't gotten it.

It's going to be two minutes, you know.

Well, this is a smorgasbord.

He's got target points, I see.

He's got target points on substance, on handicap, and on theme.

This is a do-it-yourself speech, kid.

I can't read something out there.

It looks like there's some pretty good ideas.

I could read them, but I don't.

I don't think it should be read.

That's a television show.

It should not be read.

When George Washington left this hall and this city, he talked less of the document, meaning the Constitution's virtues and of its imperfections.

The best thing about it, he said, was that it left so much room for change.

For this meant the future generations could continue what began in Philadelphia, and we gather today we are carrying on that work.

It requires it.

So, set in 1970, I came to Philadelphia to help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Then I thought the strings were great, but when it comes to cutting the program, our goal was to get rid of the strings.

Oh, boy.

The anecdotes aren't going to do an attribution.

That's not you.

It's all right.

It's somebody else.

In the early days following the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill said, give us the tools and we will finish the job.

Today we say to state and local officials, here are the duties.

We know you can do the job.

That's not fair.

What shall I do?

and therefore he would be briefed as we make a lot of everything on him.

Reverend Sheridan, as you know, John doesn't send people to tell.

I've used his speech every week.

They don't give a shit.

They made her the average person.

Stuart Alsop and the sophisticates.

So I really don't feel it.

Most people don't want to hear it.

Want somebody to do it for them.

And most people don't trust their local people as much as they do Washington.

It's a jury.

It's a damn smart as fuck.

That's true.

But it's a good thing to do.

It'll gain you.

We've accomplished something in history with our individuals.

I noticed in the House we got 26 votes.

10 to 1.

Colston said he thought we could sustain it.

We fought hard.

Colston thought we could sustain it and we fought hard.

We fought, led, and died for every country.

We couldn't even find anybody to carry our hot, you know.

Ford and Aaron's failed now.

Your only readers are reading me out of the web.

Now it's done.

No legislation's over.

So there'll be pressing for all the people.

At least the environmentalists know.

I don't remember.

We won the battle on the morning news, but I don't know how it will play tonight.

I'll give you another story.

Another story on getting the Congress up.

Well, you might say this economic package of the Soviets is a pretty good story.

Yeah, that's a big story.

That's a very important story, actually.

$720 million on a flat lease.

I don't know whether the connection will work out or not.

Where do you land there?

That's where we're trying to figure out how to have a place.

We're clearing a field now.

Well, he wants us to get you to come.

Of course, he'd want you to come and leave him or something.

It would be very nice to do it there in the eastern Kentucky.

That's a beautiful hill.

I don't know.

There may be an airport space or something in there someplace.

You know, that's a lot of people.

Over near Huntington West, Virginia, is there anyone in there?

The bottom of Ohio.

Portsmouth, Ohio, is there anyone?

Oh, listen.

I've got an idea.

Portsmouth, Ohio is right there.

Huntington, West Virginia is a hell of a big town by the way.

There's an airport there.

The only thing they do is land in Huntington.

Then you're in West Virginia.

Then drive over to the other place.

They're right across the river.

Huntington and Ashland are the same.

And then go across to Ashland for the meeting.

Do you think you've been in West Virginia?

They were right next to each other, you know, deep Washington.

Well, Huntington is bound to have a damn good airport.

I think I've been in that.

I've spoken to Huntington a couple of times.

Actually, Charleston's on the 29th chopper, by the way.

Might be an idea right there.

You could pop into Charleston.

If it isn't big enough, Huntington.

Then chopper the other way.

There's a lot of symbolism, in my opinion, in going to West Virginia.

You know, it's a ghetto of the states, most people say, and yet they're a crowd lunch.

It just means an awful lot.

It's hard to order.

East got tough to go there.

Hard to use.

The land in West Virginia, Charleston, and Charleston.

I just had a report on this terrorism committee we set up.

Dave Young's been following it.

He said that their intelligence is that the alpha-ta are going to try and put on a spectacular in this country between now and election time.

Versus if they're going to put one on the day after the election.

Well, anyway, these fellows seem to think Rabin is the big target here.

Well, what we'd like to do is to keep it out of the White House so that we have a sort of an automatic procedure.

Well, and it gets it away from here so that if something goes wrong, why it wasn't pursuant to your, you know, that they couldn't get us over here or something.

I don't think so.

It wasn't pursuant to either that they couldn't get us over here or something.

I don't think so.

If he has a responsibility, I'm going to be busy.

I'm going to be away and everything, and I want him to assume that responsibility.

And I will back him up.

That's all he needs to know.

But if anything happens here, he should move in instantly.

Do what is necessary.

And he can say that he has orders from the president.

See what I mean?

Correct.

You can say, yes, I have a general order from the president.

I can carry it out.

But don't allow that to my mother's hands.

Shoot.

Well, that'll help.

Because otherwise we'll get bogged down in these things.

The first 10 minutes, they say, is very important.

Well, I don't think so.

Yeah, the key targets are Rabin and Shriver.

Shriver.

We've got to figure out the president.

Yeah, I know.

But the day after the election.

I said, you want to wait until he's re-elected?

How are they going to get in?

They haven't given us the game plan.

I think they float these things all the time.

They do.

The ravine is so prominent.

He's logical.

Israelis cover their guys, so.

I flew on the same plane with Yvonne last time I was in Europe.

Didn't have to be booked on the same airplane.

And they weren't going to put my luggage aboard.

They refused to carry anybody's luggage on the airplane with them.

And these young toughs from Israel are all around me.

And they shake you down.

You go this way, and they pat you down before you get on the airplane.

And it was only because I was from here that I managed to get my luggage on that.

They're really rough.

john is going to have all sorts of statements to drop off actually yeah they've already started well we're still groping for a theme it's hard isn't it we'll you know the the line we've been using occasionally about the best four years in america's history no i didn't uh one of the best four years well one of the best four years why not be superlative about it and say

Toward the best four years in America's history.

You say that?

Toward the best four years.

Yeah, well, they really will.

They really will be.

Who the hell, whatever.

In fact, when people have had better, when they had peace, better jobs, better welfare, better for people to sit on their ass than now.

It seems to me that if we had a... Toward America's best four years.

Yeah.

Toward America's best four years.

Is he going to put that as a tag?

It's a very nice, it's a nice theme.

You know, they thought, you've got four more years.

Our goal is to make the next, of course, I haven't delivered, but I'm trying to go to you.

Sure.

I said, man, we'll make the next four years one of the best four years.

I thought it was an elimination of our history, but I think it would be a little more, that our goal is let's make the next four years the best four years in America's history.

That's our goal.

That's right.

Our goal is to make the next four years the best four years in our industry.

That's a clearly attainable goal, because you have everything in position for that.

Peace, prosperity, and growth.

That can be all it's had at times, you know.

There, they strewn it up to the last.

They were supposed to make the call from the center at 3.30.

They are unbelievable, aren't they?

I saw somebody's limousine was pulled in here.

Are they going to call or not?

Call?

If you've got a cop, I haven't even heard of the Senate yet.

That's right.

Maybe the House is coming in.

Have you heard of the House?

Yes, I heard of them at 2.30, but I told them Tim was going to be in touch with the bill.

In fact, maybe Tim was going to tell them.

I wonder what they're doing.

It is most disgraceful, the body that, I mean, I was in Congress with this, and they were pretty solid.

One of us, for example, was a small man.

And remember, I handled it that way, too.

The question was, daylight is safe.

We were in charge of Daylight Saving for the Division of Columbia.

Well, all the pretended Chinatown Farmers were opposed to it, you know.

And they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they were, they

I looked at that bunch last night, Gravel and Tunney and Church and some of those clowns.

Poor old Warren Eggerson staggering around down there.

And then Percy came prancing in toward the, just missed the vote.

No, but he does.

He's sleeping out someplace.

Oh yeah, we sat there and watched this last night for an hour.

And because I wanted to be absolutely sure of how the spending thing went.

And so it was a big help, actually, because I wouldn't have known McGovern had been there if I hadn't sat there and listened to him, you know.

Well, I wasn't getting the news.

I was relying on the boys on the Hill.

And so it was good we were there, but what a depressing damn thing to watch.

Kennedy was presiding for a while, and all he did was repeat what the parliamentarian said.

The parliamentarian would look up at him and tell him something, and Kennedy would say it into the microphone.

That's what he usually does.

Yeah.

Between that parliamentarian, Mark Trice, and a couple of those clerks, I had a feeling that they were kind of running for it.

Get a big office with a handle there?

They're about a third done with the inaugural stamps.

The seats are all in, and the framework's up, and the whole business is done.

The inaugural's practically set.

They've got all the rooms set and all that, so it's fine.

Don't you have approved Frank Lincoln's Brooklyn Constitution Institute?

Yeah, I remember.

So he called my mom and told me, two months ago, right after we had a crash, he said, don't go to South Carolina, you have to go to Los Angeles, and that's where it's a little bit of a range of transition, and that people are very surprised, and I said, hell no.

I thought that was where we transitioned.

So go to the front row.

That's right.

I said, of course, we don't expect this, but you've got to be prepared for these things.

Prepared for these people, of course.

These loyal rats and all these agencies, they get all the dope and all the information and cut us up.

That was a tricky thing on their part.

Overhanding these dudes, too honest to say.

All I'm gonna say, I have no comments on the establishment of the French military.

Tricky.

Nine other times Richard Nathan has decided that maybe there isn't going to be a welfare program, so he's going to Brookings.

He's supposed to be over there running the new welfare program.

Brookings.

Oh, that place is accessible.

No more legislation.

What is it?

I called it that right along and managed to get away with it.

You're a senator, but you voted with Kennedy to go ahead with the investigation.

Voted against us on the spending limit.

Yep.

Voted against us on the water bill.

I want you to become another Charlie Goodell.

But you're sort of a hydrogen bomb endorsement now.

You're served.

You really do a better job of helping a guy like Evans than you can.

I can go in there, as I did, and say all kinds of things about him that you couldn't say.

and get away with it.

When did they have this vote that he did this, Matthias?

It hasn't been a committee, it was a letter.

Teddy circulated the numbers to the committee, and Matthias put out a public opinion yesterday saying that he had a big statement that it's a terrible thing, that's why we must be investigated, and I support the senator.

committee investigation.

So I'm thinking of Gurney and Agnes and talking the shit out of them on it.

Agnes will talk shit out of the Bias this next time around.

But I think the Senate will be very interested to discuss this.

There's a deep passion hatred there.

Good.

Well, when the Bias comes sucking around, you know, he says, I want to be with the President as often as I can.

Yeah, bullshit.

And, uh...

He's like, it's the same person.

Yep.

Saxby's just a...

Well, the fire has to last.

Thomas has got no excuse for it because his support, all his O-line support in Maryland is furious with him.

Are they?

Not backing him, of course, but in his own county, Frederick, where he comes from, in his own area, the old district, all the lawyers, the people that are the big Matthias buddies that you meet out in Maryland, they all say, Jesus, you know, I'm sorry about what happened back there.

When downstate Illinois is the first person, they're going to vote for him now.

Because downstate Illinois, they vote Republican against anybody.

So they need his counsel.

Well, they should.

They're absolutely right.

Well, that's a key point.

I feel it absolutely differently about, say, well, to take a very, very good example, Jemmins.

Now, Chavis now is a liberal.

He says so.

He's usually against us.

But Chavis normally does not broker the fact that he's against us, does he?

He is not a courthouse defensive guy.

And brokers get us into the courthouse.

That's all right.

We're a good case.

Chavis is a lace merchant.

He'll quibble and argue with you and haggle and all that kind of stuff and get the best bargain he can, and then he disappears.

The person who comes up is always going to say that he's righteous, but he does it with his pious, you know, protestation.

So does Scott, to some extent.

Yeah.

Pennsylvania Association of Industries.

Oh, I see.

He wants our support.

Yeah.

He told me that he was just taking up the time.

He told me that he was practicing.

He thought he had a devoted supporter now that he had been able to raise $350,000.

I'm pretty sure he was a very exciting candidate.

I'll tell you, he plays a big part in this.

I'm sure he'll get re-elected later.

I don't know.

If you get the Republicans, you should, by all chance, win the Senate.

I think they'll change the leadership.

If you get a fellow like Nunn in there, he won't help Scott's chances.

I never thought we had a school in hell around here.

You go to the Griffins and the Bajors, and that doesn't happen.

The Bajor hasn't got it either.

Uh, there's, there's the crack.

You've got to really go down to the rock before you get character and leadership capabilities, and he's too new.

Rock's the guy that would be the best leader for us, in fact.

Yeah.

But you really, you can't, you see the mutts in my job.

I don't think you've got a leader out there.

I'm afraid of them.

That's why I made you, because it's wrong.

It's probably the sky.

Wouldn't you be better off as a leader than this guy?

Yeah.

It's probably not worth the fight.

The way you can overthrow Scott is by letting him fight.

We are not going to let him fight.

We'll decide that later.

That was one.

He would be a perfect man.

He'd be worse than Scott.

He's cold.

He'd have to get down there.

His feathers are rough and all that sort of thing.

Or smooth.

It would be a disaster.

He wouldn't care as long as you're doing something.

The only one that would be worse than Allo, I mean, Allo's got some principle in the soul of the gender, would be Jack Miller.

Oh, Jesus.

Boo.

This is terrible.

I'm going to show you the kind of maturity you've got.

I'm going to show you.

He would like to be here.

He's got his numbers up here.

They were very ambitious.

Dole, Lou has shot his life.

He became national chairman and got a senior.

He should have stayed.

Stayed there.

He conceded to the guy for how little, what little he is.

And he's got a good ton of time.

He's very clever, but he's safe on the Senate floor.

I think so.

Totally agree with you.

No.

There just isn't a lot of talent there.

Well, it says that Rob's the best one on the beach.

Couldn't do it, but couldn't make it.

Of course, Rob's felt the fields of horror every time.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I thought that when I first came here, but I'm pretty depressed now.

Well, let me say this.

Horrors, if you're sitting there, horror is totally horrors.

I don't know why.

But he manages to wheel these guys, and he delivers every...

He tries to lead, which most of the leaders don't.

I don't know why Roosevelt's so dominant.

Well, it's a young Turk versus leadership thing that's been there.

You remember Don led the charge for the Turks.

Asked at your bosom.

That would be an ask at your bosom.

I tell you, that guy is...

He's smart as hell, but he's got plenty of bumps, and he doesn't give a damn for any old man.

He just can't be moved.

He doesn't agree with you.

He's a little like Scott.

Well, I mean, in terms of just not being willing to admit that he's there to cooperate.

Now Ford, on the other hand, will, even though he disagrees with you, some kind of old Ford will say, well, if the president asks me, I'll do it.

Yeah.

Just like John Flynn says, well, if you ask me to do it, I'll do it.

Yeah.

God, I love that guy.

I think he's great.

And that's one thing about Jerry.

He sees the bigger ballgames, you know?

Yeah.

If only we could have his next reporter.

All right, so you can move some people over.

Move Bob Berg over.

And let him be leader?

Sure.

That's what I do.

Sure.

Then get out of here, boy.

Let me turn code leader.

Why not?

I don't think I can tell that.

You go out and explain that to Scott.

Yeah, that's good.

I like that.

Scott Carpenter.

Very good.

Oh, there's Scott.

I should always say that, don't I?

You did a pretty good job on the post the other day.

That little statement you put out.

Yeah.

God, I hated to do that.

I don't know, but I was going to be smart.

I'm not going to ask you too much.

If you think there's a way we can end those bastards here, you know what, you know, I'll lend you money.

In Victoria Woods, the times, the coast, it was weak.

Time.

on through the networks, they got the message.

But in the editorial rooms of those places, they had the same pattern of repeat that's repeated in every administration, and that we repeated, too, for reasons that we thought were good enough.

Then when it's over, it's all going to be on the doorway.

We'll have Scotty wrestling in the White House when the French president comes.

Kate Graham will be invited.

They'll get in front of their little specials and say, there's a little Scotty kick around.

He's not going to have one.

Nobody, either Todd or the White House, will ever get a special treatment again.

Never, ever, ever.

Or from Todd, or Mike, or his view side, will ever be in an office again.

The networks have us at their mercy.

Now, they know it for reasons that are, well, when I say they...

Particular people.

No, the only ones that know it are the networks, unfortunately, if I'm frank with you, the business people.

Haley knows it, Stan knows it, Golden knows it, and so on.

But I got on the shore, for instance.

Oh, absolutely.

The networks, we should pick

What I meant is that the business management of the network, they don't know how to represent.

Herman was in yesterday, and I did that tape, and I said the reason I wouldn't talk to Shore on Sunday was that his wife and his brother are both very active in the McGovern campaign, and I won't see him.

And he said, oh, well, you mean until the election?

And I said, no, I mean period.

And he said, well, that's really holding a grudge.

I said, this isn't a grudge.

We have an adversity of interest.

Yeah, I know you.

I can tell.

It's hard to tell.

But... We've got to say we've got to get into the grudge.

We're not doing it out of indignity.

We've got to finally get smart enough to realize that we've been very silly.

So never, never, never have them again.

Because I know all their ways of doing it.

And I would do these for the press conferences, which I will be doing later.

Call Andrew.

Well, they won't do so much of that.

But I would just not call people like that, the distributors.

Suppose it would be too obvious if we asked them to wear special-armed bands?

The President knows pretty well how to wear these.

Well, I'll try to figure out who they all are.

But I'll try to remember.

I do know...

I like it.

That's the difference.

There, you screw the good guy because he's with a bad institution because there's nothing the good guy can do about it.

On the networks, they're all the bad institutions, but there you work the good guys and screw the bad guys because you can't do anything about them.

You don't need the Washington Post.

You do need CBS somewhere in the CBS.

The Washington Post can hurt you.

heard it because it's a good day to write a song.

I bet you Washington established it.

It doesn't matter to them.

I went on the service.

I got questions about Hobart Rowan out on the coast this time.

And I said, my God, I didn't know you people had ever heard of Hobart Rowan.

This was an AP editor's thing.

And they said, oh yeah, we subscribe to the Post largely.

Post has a pretty good syndicate.

It was interesting.

The Post ran my letter against Hobart Rowan on their wire.

Yeah, because these guys had all had it.

And they printed it alongside Rowan's column.

It came out of time to run beside the column.

But I got a question on it, so I asked him about it.

I'm surprised the Post ran my letter.

I have a little bit of debate about it, as a matter of fact, as I said, if somebody from TASC gets on call, I'll get somebody who's, you know, I've said at the end of the day, I understand people who are totally against the political side, who think they're wrong about it, but I don't think this segment only has a gracious attitude to it.

That's the difference, yeah.

parents trying to be there.

The Times is not a good newspaper.

It is an unfair, viciously slanted newspaper.

Vicious because it's so cluttered.

But don't help them.

Don't build on them.

Matter of fact.

I had a vicious thing today that Chapin started when they say their big front page lead is the discernment that 28 phone calls were made by Zagretti to the White House, Chapin, or Howard Nunn.

They don't break it down.

You know, it might have been one call to Chapin, one to the White House, and 25 to Hunt, which is probably what it was.

But it's... That whole thing, all that stuff, there's just tons of innuendo... implications.

They get a little bit feral, and it doesn't bother them.

Yeah, that's the thing that amazes me.

You think that... Well, and you're so goddamn moralistic about it.

Yeah.

I mean, if they want opponents or credits for the thieves who took the stuff out of Gensinger's office, for those who got the Pentagon papers, what the hell is the difference?

Well, this is the morality.

There's a dishonesty in the thing.

Now, the Post editorial this morning says, well, Daniel Ellsberg is the government employee.

He wasn't working for the committee to re-elect the president.

That's the distinction.

Yeah.

That's just awful.

It wasn't Farmer, I see.

What if it was a Farmer government employee?

But they were equating Chapin and Ellsberg.

And saying, you know...

But they're not saying Chapin and Sam apparently.

Pardon?

What are they saying?

They're trying to get Chapin tapping.

They're getting closer every day.

They're going to have Chapin running water taps right into his office in this White House with an indirect line to your phone before they're there.

That's what they're doing by insinuation.

They've got Chapin built up to the station of Secretary of the National Security Council now.

You know, he's making all the decisions.

Highest level of assistance.

Yeah.

He's the president's officer.

Yeah, now he's...

Whenever he feels like it.

One of the very few members of the White House staff that sees you all the time.

Has he been in this office in the last year?

I doubt I've ever seen him, no.

But he was in here once, but I think it was over a year ago.

Oh yeah, I was in his office, I think it was, but only once over four years, if I recall.

That doesn't mean that he isn't very important.

The point is, he doesn't see you every day, or even every month.

There are a lot of people in this office that are very important.

I'm sure he's important.

He had a bad rap.

That's the one thing that most people are very curious about.

It's a class that they cannot stand.

Yep.

And by that, like for example, by the Christmas parties.

Well, the ultimate put down is that you win big.

I think so.

I think that's the... Then they have to explain it.

Sure.

To themselves.

Yeah, it isn't a question.

They'll be able to rationalize it in print.

But they won't in their hearts.

Phil Jayline and the rest of them.

to know that they're out of step, that their positions are repudiated.

That's not it.

That's not what they'll conclude.

Their arrogance, they don't conclude that the entire nation .

They are smart enough to know on their own.

That's the point.

They will write it differently.

I agree.

But Bob, they're not the people that .

They're too .

I don't know.

Their view will be that the country's going to fall.

All right, all right.

My grandfather's an FDR one.

He was upset.

He died.

Well, they are, aren't they?

Holy crew.

They are, aren't they?

And, and then, and there, you know, all this talk about, you know, how they lost your saxophone like Alan Curry.

You know why?

Because he wrote about these covers.

If you reread any of Alan Curry's books today, if anything, you understand it now.

That's right.

They do get together.

They do pair the same line.

No question.

You read it, yeah.

Well, look, it's just, it's almost pathetic.

It's so ridiculous.

You take the magazines every week.

If you could tell the line ahead of time, here it's coming from the network, or from John Osworth's column, and something, and when we're close to the time, it'd be mine.

There's an establishment in every country, an intellectual establishment.

It would be mine, an intellectual establishment, an establishment, that sometimes, at some times, stood with the government when government came under assault by violent elements.

But they have sighted the destructive elements, and that's where they lost their meaning.

This is the best part of the Connolly tape, as far as I'm concerned, is going back to the Henry Wallace time and showing his consistent alignment with, or against... And here's what he said to them.

That's the way it is.

It's the real one.

I think that's the most telling cut in that whole thing.

Should we find out?

I have not made a visit to see the bastards, and I don't want to keep them.

I have a feeling the conceited children are going to go by.

The old president's wondering what your conversation is.

Uh, what's going on?

Yeah.

Well, they're gonna bounce back and forth.

Well, they haven't done that.

Yeah, thanks.

Yeah.

Oh, Lord.

That tax thing?

What, it's an amendment to it?

Yeah.

Well, it's 5.30 now, Bill.

Why don't you, why don't you do that?

Just knock it off.

Because they don't want to wait this long.

They want to be having a drink.

I'll wait while Senator calls.

The President said he'll wait over at the house for a call.

And just forget the coffee if they're not much disarray.

William?

Okay.

Good.

It's all screwed up.

The highways conference finally reported a bad highway bill.

It goes unblocked in the House.

It's stewing in the Senate.

Javits is raising hell about the Nagelson Amendment on unemployment.

He wants something called Pins and Needles Bill, which is a tax amendment, which has a much more liberal unemployment provision on it.

So he's got the Senate all fouled up.

The Senate has not yet passed a debt extension.

There's probably not a quorum there right now.

So they're afraid to call a vote.

And Bill says he doesn't know when they're going to get done now.

So the House is probably fairly stable because Jerry Porter will object and call for a challenged quorum.

But the Senate is stumbling along with their attendance dwindling.

And you still have to get this thing done.

Javits got a hold on it.

So, I told him to tell him to just forget the coffee.

It'd be two hours before the signing of the straightener.

Well, if I guess, I had all those folks down there.

About this hour, they're all getting around, singing songs and everything.

Sure, sure.

Well, they live on this terrible place.

They always, the legislative bodies go through this.

But this is without question the worst Congress in my life that I've seen.

I've seen it.

But I didn't pay much attention to it, like I said, during the 60s.

And by God, I saw them on it for 14 years, and I've seen them for the last four.

And this is the worst.

We checked Huntington at the time of that flood.

Remember when that family flooded down there?

No, we could go in there.

But it was too far, too far helicopter.

From here to Huntington?

No, from Huntington down to that flood.

It was way down the south end of the state.

But the feasibility of getting into Huntington, I think, was established at that time.

That's where you'd have to go to get down.

Actually, the Huntington Airport may be at Ashland.

It's between Huntington and Ashland.

It's well screwed up.

The Transportation Conference came out.

Davids is fiddling for the last nickel.

We'll get things hung up.

They probably haven't got a quorum.

I really see that.

They haven't done anything on death yet.

We're a long way in.

But of course, we don't mind.

Those are all our business.

Excuse me, I'll get on up.

I kept afraid about those boys waiting.

I better get up and see what they have on their hands.

What are they doing?

He's leaking out a different story each day.

I'm putting out a different story each day on .

No, this is a new one.

They've got this number of phone calls.

I don't know where that is.

I haven't read the Times story, but it's on the front page.

It's only in the Times.

It comes out from the Bureau.

I don't know.

I have a feeling, as I've felt all along, that they have a whole pile of stuff that they've got.

I don't think they're getting this bit by bit.

I think they've had it.

But they're doing it out there.

They're...

It's damn smart.

Because they'd get a new ride out of every little drop.

Could be.

The Time Magazine thing had a different sign, too.

Too late.

Dan Rather takes the big thing today, and he says he whitewashes Chabon and Jeffrey Bruder.

Ties them together, first of all.

to the Watergate and the other business.

And whitewashes him because he knows that they are men of high character and honest and moral background.

And therefore, they couldn't have done this.

So obviously, John Mitchell and Bob Allman did it.

And they were just taking their orders from on high, from the president of John Mitchell and Bob Allman.

But you're not here that way.

I've been saying these nice, innocent young boys didn't know what the whole plot was.

They could only have done it if they'd told it.

Is that a good morning show?

You, of course, is lovely.

I think you should not suck around the wedding.

There's no use for you.

I agree.

I know that.

I don't know who you do suck around at CBS, because it isn't Rather, and it isn't Pierpoint, and it isn't... Well, I'll agree.

Pierpoint's the one with a glimmer now and then of hope.

On ABC, even Jeremy can do fairly well at the time of time.

So, anyway, that works.

You just have to work with the molding.

The thing there is really, is mainly to just totally turn off the real sons of bitches, the Calps and the Shores.

I would start with the Calps and Shores.

And Rack.

See, that's all CDS.

Fine.

We turn them off.

Yeah, you play the ABC network, give them the stuff, let them have the poop.

They play it straight for us most of the time.

NBC's playing it pretty well now.

They're giving us a good ride.

Well, the Senate may wonder how we should push through in the round.