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This file contains:
From Colson to Buchanan RE: an attached piece on Muskie. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 12/3/1970
Buchanan's report laying out criticisms of Muskie and attempting to portray him as a radical. Handwritten notes added by unknown. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], no date
A critical piece, possibly written by Lasky, attacking Muskie as a member of the radical New Left. Various newspaper cut-outs are stapled to the draft. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], no date
Sheet of notes on Muskie to be used by Lasky. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 12/1/1970
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WHSF: Contested, 3-72
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This file contains:
From Colson to Buchanan RE: an attached piece on Muskie. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 12/3/1970
Buchanan's report laying out criticisms of Muskie and attempting to portray him as a radical. Handwritten notes added by unknown. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], no date
A critical piece, possibly written by Lasky, attacking Muskie as a member of the radical New Left. Various newspaper cut-outs are stapled to the draft. 5 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], no date
Sheet of notes on Muskie to be used by Lasky. 1 pg. [Subject: Campaign] [Other Document], 12/1/1970
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Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
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3
72
12/3/1970
Campaign
Memo
From Colson to Buchanan RE: an attached
piece on Muskie. 1 pg.
3
72
>
Campaign
Other Document
Buchanan's report laying out criticisms of
Muskie and attempting to portray him as a
radical. Handwritten notes added by
unknown. 5 pgs.
3
72
>
Campaign
Other Document
A critical piece, possibly written by Lasky,
attacking Muskie as a member of the radical
New Left. Various newspaper cut-outs are
stapled to the draft. 5 pgs.
3
72
12/1/1970
Campaign
Other Document
Sheet of notes on Muskie to be used by
Lasky. 1 pg.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Page 1 of 1
EYES ONLY
December 3, 1970
MEMORANDUM FOR PAT BUCHANAN
Attached is what I promised you -- a draft of a Lasky piece on
Muskie.
There are two caveats. The first two paragraphs were basically
what the President dictated. The second caveat is that I am no
writer or columnist. I think the meat is here, however, for you
to apply your fine hand.
We want to circulate this very, very widely so it should really
make its point very hard.
Charles W. Colson
LASKY
"You have the God-given right to kick the
government around - - don't hesitate to do so."
Edmund Muskie, Fall, 1968
This was the paternal advice given by Vice Presidential
candidate Muskie to the New Left in 1968 -- advice the New Left
took to heart and took into the streets in 1969 and 1970. Were this a
slip of the tongue it could be dismissed as a meaningless faux pas.
But taken in context - with the words and votes and actions
of Senator Muskie since 1968 -- that comment begins to explain
why his candidacy enjoys mounting enthusiasm on the far left
of the Democratic Party -- that faction which holds the veto power
over the 1972 nominee.
Selected by LBJ-Heir, Hubert Humphrey, as running mate
to appease the unmollified, embittered elements of the Democratic
Left, Muskie dutifully and dourly delivered his perfunctionary
pro forma defenses of the Roosevelt-Truman-Kennedy-Johnson firm
line against Communist aggression. But he balked at the assignment;
his heart wasn't in it. And the balance of his 1968 campaign was a
calculated Muskie "apertura a sinistra" an "opening to the left" -
as the Maine Senator sent one unmistakeable signal after another to
He contribute to GM Fund-
2
the radicals in his party, that he "understood," that he was their
man, that come November, win or lose, he would be back where
he believed -- and where he belonged.
The history of the last two years has shown him a man of
his word.
He has openly collaborated with Fulbright in every attack on
the Nixon foreign and defense policies. His public outrage over the
Cambodian incursion that cut American casualties to the lowest levels in
five years and enabled U.S. withdrawals to continue was among the
shrillest on the Hill. His wholesale endorsement of the McGovern-
Hatfield, and Cooper-Church Amendments to tie the President's
hands in Asia speak to the New Left louder than any words that Big
Ed is "all right" on foreign policy.
At home every massive spending bill has had his stamp of
approval. He was a leader in the forces that killed the SST. He has
mounted a heavy personal assault on the auto industry -- demanding
the kind of Draconian anti-pollution standards that would make Detroit
a ghost town in 1976, but make Ed Muskie a New Left's pop hero in 1972.
When violence erupted at Jackson State, and black students
were killed, Mr. Muskie jetted to the scene to be photographed with
the black mourners. As they say in the New Left Caucuses, "we're
not going to carry Mississippi anyway; a coalition of the black, the
3
poor and the young is going to carry the nation next time. " So it is
that the same Senator Muskie who set a new speed record from the
Capitol to Jackson, Mississippi, was somehow nowhere to be found
at the funeral services for that white researcher who died in the
criminal bombing of the math building at the University of
Wisconsin.
Those who don't believe what they read in the papers should
look at the statistics -- an ADA rating of 95 percent; a COPE
r ating of 100 percent. These are targets for even Democrat
Congressional radicals Ronald Dellums and Bella Abzug to shoot at
in the Ninety-Second Congress.
Yet, surprisingly, despite his left-radical voting record,
Muskie retains a patina of moderation -- perhaps due to the
delivery of his speeches and the man's personal appearances. (A
friend once told me of Bircher John Rousellot "he can make the
damndest and most radical statements in the most convincing
and pleasant way of any man I have ever seen.")
Even my esteemed colleague, William White, has argued
that it is still an open question whether Ed Muskie should be counted with
the Gale McGees and Scoop Jacksons - - or with the isolationist left-
radicals who dominate his party in the Senate.
4
The aftermath of the POW mission of mercy carried out by
Colonel Simons¹ herioc raiders should have given Bill the answer
to his question. Muskie's voice in the Senate rose well above
the choirus of the Kennedys and McGoverns -- denouncing in even
harsher terms than they this "escalation" of the war, this "military
adventure, 11 this "incursion" into little North Vietnam -- yes,
little North Vietnam that has engaged in systematic barbarism
toward captured American fliers unseen since the days of Tojo.
Someone once wrote, where a man's purse is, there his
heart will be. Newsweek has fixed the source of the big dough
coming in to fuel the national Muskie effort -- theHollywood
cinema moguls.
It doesn't take genius to figure out why the cinema moguls
are suddenly moving into politics with their blue chips. The Nixon-
Agnew denunciations of filth on the screen and permissiveness in
society do not create the kind of social climate one desires when
making profits hand over fist on skin flicks. Just why Ed Muskie,
from conservative Maine, has suddenly become the beneficiary of all
this Hollywood lucre will be the subject of a future column.
The New Left has learned something from its defeats
at the hands of Nixon and its rejection by the millions in Middle
America. They are not about to take another flier, on a George
McGovern, say, only to watch him ground up in the treads of the
5
Nixon Juggernaut. The New Left has found a man they can depend
upon in the Presidency -- to force a policy of bugout from Asia
of
and the world and a policy bussing for the schools and suburbs.
They have found in Ed Muskie, a man with the appearance and
demeanor of a moderate -- and with ideas and viewsalmost identical
to their own -- the New Left has found its Man for All Seasons.
This is the horse they are now settling upon in the 1972
sweepstates; and Ed Muskie's candidacy offers the New Left the
first best chance it has ever had to ride through an open door
into the White House.
Laky
DRAFT
This reporter has never tried to disguise his distaste for the
Democratic New Left and some of its more illustrious members
in the U.S. Senate. Nor has this reporter been known as a particular
enthusiast or admirer of one particular member of that group --
Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine.
The fact is, however, that Muskie is getting a bad rap and though
it may surprise some of my readers to find me coming to his defense,
in all fairness I must.
The story has been circulating in the corridors of the Capitol that
Muskie is really not a liberal -- that he doesn't belong to the New
Left group -- that he really is a middle of the road down easter.
It is being said that the Muskie who has consistently criticized Presi-
dent Nixon's handling of the war, who has joined with Fulbright and
other doves in attacking every defense and foreign policy measure
of the Nixon Administration, who has criticized the Sontay rescue
mission -- that this is not the real Muskie. The real Muskie is the
man who in 1968 took the Johnson-Humphrey line, and defended the
war in Vietnam.
Even my esteemed colleague, William White, has recently questioned
which is the real Muskie -- the Muskie of 1968 or the Muskie "who
simply vies with the Kennedys, the McGoverns and all the other new
isolationists in the conviction that what is most of all required is a
2.
progressive retreat from the responsibilities of world leadership
in favor of the creation of a more nearly happy domestic society?"
Those who are circulating the notion that Muskie is a moderate are
no friends; it is his detractors and the reason is plain. The party
machinery of the Democratic Party is squarely in the hands and
control of the New Left just look to the primaries of 1968.
Way-out New Lefters like Bela Asburg and Ronald Dellums defeated
bona fide Democratic liberals. And how about the money? George
McGovern raised over $1 million in the 1970 campaign fund and
judiciously parceled it out to select, like-minded, extreme liberal,
Democratic candidates around the country. The National Committee
for an Effective Congress, an arm of the same New Left Democrats,
pumped thousands into campaigns across the land. Let there be no
mistake about it: the New Left of the Democratic party are in control
of the money, the intellectual base and the machinery. No candidate
who fails to dance to their tune can hope for the 1972 nomination.
To say that Muskie has not earned his credentials as a member of the
New Left Club is just untrue. He can be criticized for many things but
not for his failure to take the straight New Left party line.
In 1970 his ADA rating was 95%, his COPE rating 100%. He voted for
the McGovern/Hatfield Amendment, he voted to cut off funds for the
ABM, he voted for the Cooper/Church Amendment which would have
tied the President's hands in trying to bring the war in Southeast Asis
to an honorable end, he has voted against the Super Sonic Transport,
3.
he joined the chorus of critics and doves in condemning the President's
action in Cambodia -- an action which has clearly been proven to be
the most successful single turning point in the war and in recent
weeks he joined Fulbright and Kennedy in condemning as an "escalation
of the war" our Government's mercy rescue mission to bring prisoners
of war out of Vietnam."
And how about our domestic issues? Muskie voted against the D. C.
Crime Bill, he has voted for every single increased appropriation over
that sought by the Administration, he has been steadfast in his support
of forced bussing and forced suburban integration. He will be right
in the forefront during the next session in the battle for National
Health Insurance on a scale broad enough to qualify it for socialized
medicine. Not only by what he does but by what he says does Ed
Muckie qualify as a member of the New Left Club.
repression.
(These sections " of the D.C. Crime Bill are) "experiments in
Washington Post July 22, 1970
The D.C. Crime Bill is "a simplistic, stopgap approach to crime. 11
Portland Press Herald 5/2/70
4.
Muskie was paid #$3000 for speech at Nortern Illinois U,
N.Y. Times, May 17, 1970.
"The ivory tower has been shattered, 11 he said, "The basic problem
of college presidents is to decide how institutions of higher
learning can be made more relevant to the student."
quoted by Elmer Bertelsen,
Houston Chronicle, 1/12/70
"You have the God-given right to kick the government around-
don't hesitate to do so."
Louisville Courier Journal
Sept 12, 1968
"! may be a protester myself. 11
Look Feb 18, 1968
11
this(period) is going to result in some adjustment
problems, including disorders, protests, and unfortunately, at
times some forms of violence.' Muskie went on to say that he
felt the process of protest and change as a whole was a "healthy"
development.
Baltimore Sun
Oct 19, 1968
"It is little wonder to me, Muskie said, "that young people today
are more concerned with the freedom to escape than with freedom
to become involved, more conscieus of the liberty to oppose than
of the liberty to support and more familar with the right to
despair than the right to rejoice."
"Those who express instant and false indictments of students,
faculty members and administrtors must be repudiated and the
answer must be plainly reported.'
Kansas City Star, May 9, 1970
5.
The contributors to Muskie's Presidential war chest reads like the
New Left's Who's Who, including very prominent names from among
Hollywood's leading cinema moguls. Newsweek recently reported
that the movie industry accounts for the biggest single group of
givers to Muskie's Presidential fund.
Ed Muskie, clearly the Democrats front runner for 1972, may be
derailed between now and the Democratic convention. When the
infighting gets tough, Ted Kennedy's money and organization could
run him over. The one thing they won't hand him for, however, is
his lack of liberal credentials. To the extent that his opponents are
now attempting to force him over into the floundering powerless center
the
of Democratic party, they will fail.
His record of loyalty to the New Left is impeccable.
Muskie is shrewd and he will not be pried loose from his hold on the
liberal wing which he and his advisors know full well is the key to
the nomination.
notes -Pneo
Dec 1
E
has vey Column -
this reps ter to we Q
Mus ice enteriast of adminer / not Justitod
Masuce is getting a bad rap - not a
Time liberal - he is a True liberal -
geiting a bad neep - Call be criticized
for therae atua trings -
Cambodia
how Forder
>
Pow reserve
use Subtle awwalls - defending his
record - geTing bad neep on this issue -
he is a genciume liberal
in segreation of schools, he has been
Steadfast - internated waving -
coldial descussion on Foreign Policy
-
as with Tydings case -
broodly inculated -
Democratic States —
Sins repreter has Taven the Time
X
Done