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This file includes comments on Ronald Reagan and also on the nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court.
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1511489
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Schweiker, Richard - Interview, 1/17/78
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1511489
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document
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Schweiker, Richard - Interview, 1/17/78
description
This file includes comments on Ronald Reagan and also on the nominations of Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court.
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collections
A. James Reichley Interview Transcripts
Congressional Interviews
subjects
Supreme Court of the United States. (02/02/1790 - )
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
Presidential appointments
Antimissile missiles
Presidential campaign, 1976
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1511489
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1977-12-31
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1977
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1969-01-01
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1969
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The original documents are located in Box 2, folder "Schweiker, Richard - Interview,
1/17/78" of the A. James Reichley Interview Transcripts at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential
Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. A. James Reichley donated to the
United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives
collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in
the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are
presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject
to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Interview with Senator Richard Schwiker, Jan 17, 1978.
Schweiker says that President Nixon had some able people around him
and GREALD FORD LIBRARY
that his initial perceptions of the Nixon administration were pretty good.
Schweiker says that Nixon appointed some able people to middle-management
N
positions. He thinks that where the Nixon group went astray astray was in
developing the enemies syndrome they felt that if you did not vote with them
5ray
on a particular issue ) then you were their enemyx they could not see the XI
point of staying XX close to people who might
oppose them on one issue but
then would be able to support them on a nother issue. The administration
seemed to develop a kind of paranoia, Schweiker says. They developed a system
of
retribution
against
all
who
they felt were not their total supporters,
toward all those who could not go with them 100 percent of the time
At
(develop
Mod.
XI the beginning of the administration, the Nixon people did try to ? some ties
Rebs,
to the progressive and moderate Republicans, Schweiker said it looked as
though there was going tobe an effort to work together the vote on the
M
ABM was what tore the relationship initially Schweiker thinks that it may
never have recovered from that. He recalls that he and Senator Cook,
ABM
wen
Senator Saxbe, and Senator Mathias ran against the administrationon the ABM
and the White House never seemed toforgive them for that. This same group was
not able tosupport Nixon on the Vietnam War, on the Cambodia incursion. ) and each
time W one of these problems came up they were driven further and further apart
the White House's attitude seemed to be designed to push them further to
the other side.
Schweiker recalled at the beginning of the administration, Haldeman and
meet
Exxxx Ehrlichman came to XX with the socalled Wednesday Group of progressive
Republican senators but there was no real communiation between them. Schweiker
had the feeling that this group was not given a high priority in the concerns
of the White House leaders. Haldeman and Ehrlichman were very bitter with the
group when they were not able to support the administrationon ABM. The
White House kept a scorecard on how senators voted, XX with or against the
- 2
i
FORD
administration, Schweiker said. those that did not have a high score were
LIBRARY
regarded as persona non grata in the White House. Schweiker says that
in
retrospect does not feel that his position against the ABM was mistaken, that
fter all this was the first thing they gave away in the course of the SALT
Thar
ABM
negotiations SO Schweiker's view could not have been so valuable in the
first place.
Now Schweiker realizes that Nixon treated the ABM as a bargaining
ship, but he says that he does not see developoing a weapon system on that basis.
Hainsworry
The failure of the progressives to support the nominations of Kinswor th and
Carswell to the Supreme Court was another source of bitter division between
sup.
cr.
the White House and the moderate Republicans and progressive Republicans. After
M
the fight xt over the Supreme Court nominations Schweiker says it really did
not seem possible to put back together the relationship. The situation
Schweiker feels I was still retrievable at that time but the White House made
no real effort to rebuild the relationship.
says
Schweiker that when Ford first came in as President he felt that it
Fors
was a great breath of fresh air that he was almost euphoric in his attitude
toward the new administration, but then Ford pardoned Nixon and that
him
like a ton of bricks. Up to the pardon he felt that Ford was being positive
news
Pavdon
and constructive but when he heard of the pardon while he was out on the
campaign trail in West Moreland County in Pennsylvania he couldn't believe
the news of the pardon when he heard, he was upset it t was a body blow to him.
doubred
After that he always that Ford would able tobe elected as President. He
thought the pardon had done terrible damage to Ford's candicacy also
it
made him question Ford's judgment.
Schweiker's decision to join with Ronald Reagen against Ford was not
based so much on diferences of philosophy but more out of belief that Ford
could not win. Schweiker said that he thought that Ford's ultimate defeat
in the general election was based on the pardon more than on anything else.
Ford's blunder about Eastern Europe and in the foreign policy debate was also
damaging to him but that this was retrievable whereas the pardon stuck with him.
- 3 -
Schweiker said that from the time of the pardon on, he had serious doubts about
Ford's electability but people did not notice thatvery much. He recalled in the
FORD & GERALD LIBRARY
early part of 1976 that Hugh Scott had circulated a petition among the Republican
senators to support Ford ad and Schweiker had not signed it. Schweiker said that
he began to develop concern that Ford lacked political sensitivity. Schweiker
said that his alliance with Reagon was more complicated simply than his concern about
Ford
X
he also thought it was necessary for the future of the Republican party
Renan to unite the Eastern and the Western wings. He said there has always been a double
standard in American politics by which the Democrats are not judgev/badly for
( figure
uniting their northern and southern wings brining together such apparently incompatable
as Roosevelt and John Garner. or Kennedy and Johnson. No one condemns them for putting
the party together, even bringing together people as different as Senator Eastland
and Senator Kennedy. And Schweiker said that he felt X it was necessary for the
Republicans to begin doing the same thing, to form a new coalition. although he did
not hink think that he and Reagon were nearly as far apart as the different sides
of the x Democratic party. If the Republican party is going to win, Schweiker says,
he thinks it is necessary to bring together the west and the northeast. Ford on
the other hand once he had got the nomination for president picked Senator Dole who
Ford
comes from essentially the same part of the country that comes from.
Looking toward 1980, Schweiker says that he stills feelsxt that the key is to
bring the east and the west together. Reagen, Schweiker regards as a pragmatic
conservative, and he feels at home with that approach himself. Schweiker said that
as early as February of 1976 he had pointed out that the federal budget was getting
out of hand that lany of the Great Society programs for which he had voted were
no longer working they were not solving problems these programs were flops in many
on
cases, Schweiker said. It is for this reason that he has taken some of the
sacred COWS of the liberal establishment. Schweiker said that it took guts for
him to take on Nixon and it also takes guts for him to take on the liberal
establishment. For instance, he has come out in favor of the youth deferential on
- 4 -
the minimum wage which is one of the liberal sacred cows, Schweiker says. Schweiker
says on one hand he rejects the XX totally federalized approach to all the nation's
problems but at the same time he rejects the total laissez-faire approach.
That where the
liberals are right in such areas as education and health that he continues to support
them but in areas such as the creation of public service jobs he takes the approach that
it would be better to des develop morejobs in the private sector. Schweiker feels
there is a new conservativism growing within the XXXX country and he identifies with
for
that. He thinks its program recommends revitalization of the private sector. As
far as federal programs go Schweiker says, he gives two tests to any federal program;
first, will it work? and second, if it is effective ) is it wxx worth the price
of contributing further to inflation?
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD