Conversation 892-005

TapeTape 892StartTuesday, April 10, 1973 at 10:22 AMEndTuesday, April 10, 1973 at 10:22 AMParticipantsNixon, Richard M. (President);  Timmons, William E.;  Korologos, Thomas C.Recording deviceOval Office

President Nixon met with William Timmons and Thomas Korologos to refine their strategy for managing Congressional relations and legislative outreach. The discussion focused on diversifying the attendance at upcoming bipartisan leadership meetings to include a broader range of committee members while strategically inviting select liberal Republicans to maintain a sense of inclusivity. Additionally, the participants discussed the logistics of presenting a television set to Congress, current efforts to sustain presidential vetoes, and concerns regarding Senator Lowell Weicker’s conduct during the L. Patrick Gray confirmation hearings.

Congressional RelationsBipartisan StrategyLegislative OutreachVeto StrategyLowell WeickerL. Patrick Gray

On April 10, 1973, President Richard M. Nixon, William E. Timmons, and Thomas C. Korologos met in the Oval Office of the White House at 10:22 am. The Oval Office taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 892-005 of the White House Tapes.

Conversation No. 892-5 (cont’d)

                                                                     Conversation No. 892-5

Date: April 10, 1973
Time: 10:22 am
Location: Oval Office

The President met with William E. Timmons and Thomas C. Korologos.

      Congressional relations
            -Bipartisan Congressional leaders meetings
                    -Relations with President
                    -Future meeting topics
                            -Unemployment insurance
                            -Energy
                            -Taxes
                    -Attendees
                            -Foreign Affairs
                            -Interior Committee
                            -Atomic Energy
                    -Taxation
                            -Ways and Means Committee
                            -Finance Committee
                    -Trade
                            -William D. Eberle
                    -Taxation
                            -George P. Shultz
                                    -Treasury
                            -Timmons, Korologos, Richard Cook
            -Barry M. Goldwater
                    -Letter to President
                            -Veto
                                    -James B. Pearson
                                    -Charles H. Percy
            -White House events
                    -Richard S. Schweiker
                            -Support for President
                                    -Vetoes
                                -9-

    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                      (rev. September-2012)

                                                 Conversation No. 892-5 (cont’d)

               -American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial
                Organizations [AFL-CIO] endorsement
        -Charles H. Percy, Charles Mathias, Jr., and Clifford P. Case
        -Schweiker
               -Barry M. Goldwater, Sr.
        -Edward W. Brooke
        -Jacob K. Javits
        -Mark O. Hatfield
               -Prayer breakfast
               -Conversation with William F. (“Billy”) Graham
        -Robert W. Packwood
               -Watergate criticism
        -William B. Saxbe
        -Church services
               -Liberals
                       -US House of Representatives
-Bipartisan Congressional leadership meetings
        -Schedule
        -Goldwater
        -Energy meeting
               -Congressional committees
                       -Attendees
        -Republican leaders
               -Attendance
               -Value of meetings with President
                       -Junior members
                       -Reports from Hugh Scott
-White House events
        -Rose Mary Woods
        -Evenings at the White House
        -Sammy Davis, Jr.
        -Francis A. (“Frank”) Sinatra
        -Congressional staff invitations
               -Republican Committee staffers
                       -Case
        -Presentation of television set by President to Congress
               -Peter M. Flanigan
                              -10-

    NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                     (rev. September-2012)

                                                Conversation No. 892-5 (cont’d)

                -House of Representatives
                       -Samuel Rayburn reception room
                       -Bipartisanship
                -Carl B. Albert
                       -Plaque
                               -Zenith Radio Company
-Vote to sustain a veto
        -Number of votes
                -Water and sewer
                -Southern Democrats
        -Joe D. Waggonner, Jr.
-White House social events
        -Robert C. Byrd
        -Loyalists
-Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
        -Harry S. Dent, Timmons
        -Independence
        -Competence
-L[ouis] Patrick Gray
        -Confirmation hearing
        -Connection
        -Judiciary Committee
-Michael J. (“Mike”) Mansfield
        -Assessment of Weicker’s conduct
        -Meetings with President
                -PRC
                -Soviet Jews
                       -Breakthrough
                       -Wilbur D. Mills
                               -President’s confidence
                                      -Prisoners of war [POWs]
        -Project in Missoula
                -Office of Management and Budget [OMB]
                       -Exception
                               -Option paper
                -Richard G. Shoup
-Albert
                                                 -11-

                      NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

                                       (rev. September-2012)

                                                                  Conversation No. 892-5 (cont’d)

                        -Breakfast meeting
                               -Gerald R. Ford

Timmons and Korologos left at 10:39 am.

This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.

Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
The old consultation bed.
The old consultation bed.
Part of it.
Yes, sir.
These three matters, the trade, my god, that's a hell of a big package this morning.
Trade, unemployment, insurance, and the rest.
Energy of his children.
I mean, there's so much of it.
And the other one, the following with the tax.
So I said that on April 30th.
That was Monday morning.
Now, I was going to say to you that with regard to the attendance of that meeting, I was doing it only for the purpose of buttering up foreign relations and foreign affairs.
I see no reason to have the bastards
although we will have some stuff in there, but you as your judge might find that they're down here so much, I think we should invite other, see what I meant?
You can see what I was trying to do.
I just want them, and I would just call and say that we're all filled up, and then bring in the Interior people, the Atomic Energy people, and what we're really trying to do is turn this into Congress, so that we get people in that aren't there before, let's just not have the same people.
Mr. President, April 30th, taxation.
It's obviously wasting these demands again.
I wonder if we couldn't bring not only the chairman and the ranking member, but several more from those committees.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
There's no need to bring it down.
And what I can do is to sit them around the side there.
We can keep our own staff as we did this morning, you see, and not have, like, for example,
Yes, sir.
So if a few fellows work out that they can't, and you know who wants them to do it.
Incidentally, in terms of the, I had a letter from Barry telling me that he wants us to be sure to take mentions on, what did he say, Pearson, and so the guy that did the book is his name, Beto Pearson.
Percy Pearson?
No, Percy Pearson.
I think the most decent of voters that apparently votes against us on this, and one of the most decent ones, is Schweitzer.
Schweitzer never designated me as a Schweitzer of Pennsylvania.
Mr. President, he's after, in the worst way, endorsement from the AFL-CIO in his race next year.
And he's doing almost anything to get it.
I see.
He, uh, never, never with us.
He's never with us.
But he's not public so often.
No, he doesn't kill her.
The reason that I, I would want to, I would want to let that asshole Percy around.
I mean, he doesn't, because he doesn't, he's taken his own road.
I didn't take it.
And I haven't taken his own road, right?
Yes, sir.
I feel differently, say, about a case.
I mean, a case is never good.
A case is not a mean... Invicted, yeah.
And I didn't make sure there was.
Pearson doesn't mean that we don't forever have Pearson in the church.
But I was going to think you ordered Lou Schweiger at some time.
I don't mean he didn't run it.
Yeah.
And what do you think, Tom?
Is that right?
I think that's fine.
He doesn't look that name.
But I don't want to do anything that makes Goldwater our loyalist man.
But I don't think he'd be mad about Schweiger.
He sure would be mad about some of the others.
Percy.
But that was Percy's name.
What do you think?
I agree.
Who are some of the other whips that you could have?
O'Brooke is... O'Brooke, oh yes, I always have him.
Well, he's going to be on the list, I think, for all reasons.
I'll be sure that he is included, because O'Brooke is, O'Brooke has to go down there.
That's nice.
He's a very evil agent, sir.
Javis.
I don't know.
That's a red flag, isn't it?
Yeah.
Javis, we had Javis, a Jewish man, or something like that.
He had a dog, no?
Hatfield, he just, people, so many people are so pissed off at that paragraph.
I don't know if you want him, if you want him to do it.
Do you have a good communication with him?
We get along.
He thinks he's very close to you.
He told Billy Graham or somebody, he can't figure out what's happened, and so on.
He and your wife.
Well, let's get Hatfield in for something, you know what I mean?
You feel that, I mean, you tell us what others, what other Republicans are there.
Oh, there's... You see, sometimes on a personal basis, you've got to...
It means that they are just addicted, that's all.
That's the other... Who are they?
No, there he doesn't.
That's actually... Well, that kind of hosts with us.
No, I have sex with him.
We've had him already.
Yeah.
I need to...
When you make up your recommendations for the church and so forth,
Always include at least one of the liberals, so it doesn't appear that we're out against them all.
Just one.
See?
I don't want anything, you see, just to be personal.
Personal.
And in the House over there, that same thing.
They're like, you know, they can include some folks that are basically on the liberal side.
We've seen some, I guess, coming through the lines.
They're pretty liberal.
I like that.
I like that.
But I do think that you're absolutely right.
Now, what we're going to do is this.
You see, this will take the place of Republican meetings.
Next week will be a bipartisan.
And then comes Eastern.
Then after Eastern, we get another bipartisan.
But fill that back row.
Fill that back row.
And I plead you to, incidentally, don't have your bulletin, you stupid boy.
I just, I look at it tomorrow and probably this time.
It's no problem for a bipartisan meeting.
You know, you can judge it, but like you can throw a cold water into a wild card anyhow.
Sure.
See?
uh the small energy is going to probably cover so many committees and yeah i think the chairman of the ranking number we're going to put up pretty good all right we've got it good now the other thing is that when we do have our republican leaders i want to do exactly the same thing i want to fill that damn back row and fill that back row we've been going with eight because we could probably march to ten i i think it could go with ten very easily in other words see what the room will take and have ten because those guys have come down there and thrown it in aren't those boys
They still talk about it.
The minister said, do you mean the president gets that deeply involved in these things?
They don't get leaders who take it for granted.
These other guys don't know what the hell they're doing.
Well, you know, one of the beauties of that is that the leaders, they say, the freshmen say to me, they don't get these kind of reports from Scott when he goes back.
That's why it's so good.
Scott gives them a...
So if you follow us, you and Sir, you have to work on that.
Yes, sir.
And use this, but use your judgment and work with Rosen.
I don't want to see the names, you know what I mean?
And you say that a lot, that we've, like, on these social events, we're having events and so forth.
I think you've got Frank Sinatra for the Italian.
Yeah, but you see, that's .
That's .
Oh, yeah, right.
You can't fight a congressman .
Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
That's right.
Yep.
Mr. President, where is that scene on the TV set, physically?
Is it here now?
Do you know?
Probably a deep-lying announcement, but it's a marvelous idea.
Yes.
You take the damn thing down and present it to the Congress and tell them to put it there?
Let's put it in the House, though.
Well, they've got that Sam Raper reception room up there, and everything's right on the floor.
Could they have one?
Oh, they could, but it'd be a wonderful place for it.
Right.
Because they sit around that there a lot.
Well, she told them that it'll be a good old story for the papers, too, with the president.
They presented it to the president.
The president said it should go to the Congress.
It's the Congress, you know, work this bipartisan and so forth.
And as a matter of fact, what you should do is to speak to Carl.
And say that you tell the speaker when you get back, call him, and he gets back to his office and says, I told him to call you in afterwards, and I said that I'd love him to replace the wardens in the house, because he designated a place.
And it could be in his office.
I don't care if there were people in his office or something.
You know, most guys would love to have something like that around.
Put a little black on it or something?
Put a little black on it.
Yeah.
uh, presented to the Speaker of the House by the President of the United States, courtesy of the, uh, things radio company.
How's that sound to you?
Great.
We'll take it that way without getting criticized for, uh, you know, get, you see, if it comes from me, you're presented to the President, by the President of the United States, courtesy of the BBC.
That's right.
Okay.
Thanks, sir.
Well, they must feel pretty good.
I told Bill about that vote last week, but you guys better run out of there today.
Looks like they didn't vote.
We didn't.
They think they will in that vote.
Yes, sir.
About 160 votes.
Some are flaky, and they'll be there if needed, you know.
But they don't know if you're going to need 140.
Yeah, 145 if they're all present voting, because they won't be, so.
I always think 140 is going to be about right.
That's about right.
They didn't have that many there.
I don't know.
water and sewer.
And it hurts our Southerner Democrats who work with us so well.
So Wagner's working hard.
I mean, we can get some, but probably not as many as Strongman.
And so that was Bob Bird's, of course, partisan show, because he runs for leader.
But I like him.
I think it's good that we had him invited in.
Yes, I've seen him.
He had a session.
There's several things.
Well, you fellas watch this character.
We're going to mix it up a little.
So that we can't get in charge of the only people we ever have down here are the people we don't
I'm not going to reward the lawyers, but then I'll always work in somebody just for color.
Right?
Right.
I agree.
I don't think we have that.
White would be good.
White?
I would never.
OK.
I hope.
I wouldn't have it, but he's not personal.
But the point is, if White heard, as gratuitously thought out, and would have cared who it was, if he took on Bill Tenants or Terry Deck or anybody else, goddammit, he doesn't come down.
Because I think the son of a bitch is in business for himself.
What do you think?
Well, he's lost some screws upstairs, too.
You think so?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
He's flaky.
The fact is, he felt it very early.
his Connecticut constituents, and he went and introduced Gray to the committee.
We worked our butts off for Gray.
We should have sent his name down.
That's the problem.
I love Pat Gray, but he just couldn't have it with the committee.
Well, Weicker's gone completely amok.
And his other senators have told us this.
Yeah.
Even Mansfield said it to me.
What did Mansfield say?
He's dismayed at the way Weicker is discrediting the committee.
I feel a billet from the meeting with Mansfield.
The reason that I always have to see him alone is
He likes to talk to you about China.
It's a lot of crap that you do.
And I tell him, let me tell you something.
The reason I brought up that Jewish thing up is that we've got some work on that.
We may have a bridge work this week.
So we'll, that'll be a great thing.
Did you see Mills trying to take credit for it?
Well, that was smart.
That's all right.
Yeah.
We like Booker, too.
But yeah, there's nothing, nothing important.
I just told him, I said, here we go.
Did he get over to see you about that?
His project in Montana?
Yes, sir.
I had no idea he was talking to you about that, sir.
Frankly, my inclination is to leave it on there.
Make an exception there.
The OMB people tell me if we make an exception for Missoula, the whole thing collapses.
Nationally.
Nationally.
We've got an auction paper coming in to you.
Oh, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't make the exception.
Why don't we don't?
You don't get that much out of here?
You may want to see the speaker some morning for breakfast.
I've actually met with him this morning, but I would like to see him for breakfast.
And so you ought to see what we can find out.
I think we should just see him with him and with you.
Well, I've heard it for a long time.
It's awful to see that at all.
Yeah.
I haven't heard it.
No, I haven't.
I do.
I tell them a lot, actually, but they all don't give anything away.
Well, I wonder how to schedule something then.
Would you want to do that before Easter or after?
Oh, I can do that before.
I'll do that shortly.
If you can't, I'll check the schedules.
Yeah.
You work at 830.
That gives them a little more time to do it.
But he should come down a little bit.
That's good.
That's the way it happens.
Jerry has a lot of staff.
Oh, yes, yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay, we'll work it out for you.
Bye.
Thank you very much.