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This file contains:
From Colson to Haldeman RE: Lou Harris and Larry O'Brien. 3 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 8/5/1971
From Colson to Haldeman RE: union events in California. 1 pg. [Subject: Domestic Policy] [Memo], 8/11/1971
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WHSF: Contested, 7-12
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This file contains:
From Colson to Haldeman RE: Lou Harris and Larry O'Brien. 3 pgs. [Subject: Campaign] [Memo], 8/5/1971
From Colson to Haldeman RE: union events in California. 1 pg. [Subject: Domestic Policy] [Memo], 8/11/1971
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
Contested Materials Collection
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Document Description
7
12
8/5/1971
Campaign
Memo
From Colson to Haldeman RE: Lou Harris
and Larry O'Brien. 3 pgs.
7
12
8/11/1971
Domestic Policy
Memo
From Colson to Haldeman RE: union events
in California. 1 pg.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Page 1 of 1
THE WHITE HOUSE
EYES CNLY
WASHINGTON
EYES ONLY
August 5, 1971
MEMORANDUM FOR:
H.R. HALDEMAN
FROM:
CHARLES COLSON
WR
SUBJECT:
Lou Harris
Lou Harris rode down on the plane from New York yesterday with
Larry O'Brien. O'Brien talked to him like the old confidant that
he once was. According to Harris, O'Brien made the following
points:
1. The early runners, McGovern, Bayh, etc., are all dead. Scoop
Jackson is picking up some support but is making a mistake by
putting all of his eggs in one basket, i.e. Florida. O'Brien
believes that even though Jackson has Holland and Smathers
working for him, Muskie will get Chiles and Askew and Muskie
will win the Florida primary.
2. Muskie has a big leg up and is improving his lot with the pros;
he has picked up some very effective regional coordinators.
3. Jackson's one hope is that the defense issue will come back
hard. O'Brien believes that in fact it will but he still won't be
able to make a strong race.
4. Teddy is not out of it "by any means". His problem is that he
will have to make a decision next January on the California pri-
mary. He probably, according to O'Brien, will not go in (Harris
has it from Steve Smith that Kennedy probably will go into
California). If he doesn't go in, according to O'Brien, Muskie
will win the nomination unless he "commits a terrible goof".
5. The one candidate over whom O'Brien feels he has no control is
Gene McCarthy. O'Brien considers him a son of a bitch, a
spoiler and a sorehead who is still mad at the guys who did him
in in 1968. Whoever the candidate is (with one exception) he will
stay in and run on a fourth party ticket; he's especially irked
at Muskie and Humphrey and would love to stay in the race if
either of them are the nominee.
2.
6. The one exception is if Teddy were nominated; for some curious
reason he does not want to block Teddy. O'Brien says that Teddy's
man, Dave Burke, now works for Howard Stein and this could be
behind it. O'Brien considers a McCarthy fourth party candidacy
as the biggest danger the Democrats face next year. He also says
that McCarthy is a "money" man who will run if he thinks he can
make something out of it, but he won't unless he has financial
backing and there is some money in it for him personally.
7. Humphrey will try but can't make it. He'll never quit trying and
will go into California.
8. Lindsay will become a Democrat in mid-August, but will not run
for the Presidency.
9. O'Brien feels that the economy is the only issue that the Democrats
have. He simply cannot understand why the President has not used
selective wage and price controls. This would cut the legs out
from the Democrats and take away their only issue. He considers
that all the "dove" candidates are dead and that the President has
completely taken over the "peace" issue. No Democrat can profit
politically in the foreign affairs field, but they can win on the
economy unless the President pulls the rug out and does some
spectacular things, which O'Brien feels the President is entirely
capable of doing. As he puts it, "it's all in the President's control.
But, I don't understand why he hasn't done it".
10. O'Brien is not concerned at all about money. He has no intention of
paying off the $9 million debt, $800, 000 of which is owed to Daley
(who is very unhappy about it). The Committee collected $1. 7 million
on their dinner, they will spend it all this year but Strauss is doing an
excellent job and thinks that he can raise the funds needed for a
Presidential campaign next year without any difficulty.
11. O'Brien believes that Texas was a fluke in 1960 and 1968 and that the
Democrats should clearly write it off for 1972. He sees no chance
of winning it but he does believe that they can win Ohio, Illinois and
New Jersey. He, therefore, believes that California will be the
swing state in the election. He thinks that the "Nixon South" is gone
as far as the Democrats are concerned, that they might pick up one
or two border states but that's all and they need Wallace in the race
to deny us the deep south. If Wallace were not in, they would lose
the entire south.
3.
12. O'Brien's attitude is guardedly optimistic. He said as he moves
around the country he finds that the economy is really biting people
and that if the President does not do something fairly significant
and if the Democrats play to this issue alone, they can win. He is
very cautious in his outlook, however, and is extremly worried
about the McCarthy situation which he kept coming back to in the
course of the discussion.
13. O'Brien thinks that Reagan is no asset in the coming election, will
not help us in California and is the most dangerous problem the
President has within the Republican Party.
From all of the foregoing, two things of significance emerge in my mind.
We should be planning how to encourage McCarthy's candidacy. It may
all turn on one man, Howard Stein. If Stein agrees to go all the way and
bankroll McCarthy's candidacy, McCarthy will stay in the race all the way,
even as a spoiler. Stein is Jack Dreyfus' partner as you know and I
would think that through Bill Rogers or others, we could perhaps encourage
Stein's commitment to McCarthy. It would even be worth pumping some
money in.
A second point which seems to me to be very important is the Democratic
debt. We have an analysis of the Democrat's creditors and we should
start on the outside a pressure campaign to force them to pay their bills
before they start spending new money. Obviously we can't get involved
in this from here but some of our business friends on the outside might
be asked to organize a campaign to put the screws on.
You and I talked about this many months ago. It was my judgment then
that we should not try to embarrass the Democrats over their debt or
create public sympathy for the "poor" Democrats, but rather wait until
the campaign was about to get underway and then see that the creditors
put the heat on them. If someone from 1701 were to pick a couple of good
loyalists on the outside, they could start them to work on this now.
EYes
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
EYES ONLY
August 11, 1971
MEMORANDUM FOR:
H.R. HALDEMAN
FROM:
CHARLES COLSON
wr
SUBJECT:
George Meany
You may have noticed in the article reporting Meany's China
blast at us that he plans to meet with Chavez while in California
this week to try to get Chavez under control. As you know,
Chavez is fighting the Teamsters and Fitzsimmons would never
consider reentering the AFL-CIO as long as Meany was supporting
Chavez and Chavez was in turn blocking the Teamsters.
Meany and Fitzsimmons have discussed the Chavez situation
before and the whole representation issue of the produce growers
in California. Fitzsimmons has been trying to get Meany to
straighten the problem out, but Meany has been heretofore
reluctant to get into it.
I think it is a reasonable surmise that if Meany is meeting with
Chavez it is to please Fitzsimmons and thereby pave the way for
the Teamsters to rejoin the AFL-CIO. This is, as I have indicated
to you before, very much against our interests politically and I
would hope that you might pass along to those involved the suggestion
that Fitzsimmons be pinned down at the earliest possible time on
this point. We should want him to remain independent through next
year.