President Johnson: Now--so I think it’s very important this be confidential. Do you know whether your talking to me is knowledge to any of your people?
Nixon: Well, in my case, the phone was picked up by somebody here. I’m at the Union Station in Kansas City. The phone was picked up by somebody else. It may be known, but I will seal them down. I’ll just tell them we got a routine report.
President Johnson: OK. If anybody asks, we will not mention it here. If they ask us, we'll say that we stated the facts as we see them, namely, that there has been no agreement between us, that we will constantly negotiate, and when there is, why, the candidates will be among the first informed...
Humphrey: Mr. President?
President Johnson: Yes?
Humphrey: It’s obvious that I’m here at a school and I’m all alone. There’s nobody with me, and they do not know that I’ve got a call from you. But I’ve been held up in a meeting, and that press is always very alert. I’m just simply--is it all right just simply to say that we’ve had our regular report?
Nixon: That’s good.
― pplains, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:33 (nine years ago) link
Politically, however, (JFK and Nixon) were not continents apart. They agreed, for example, on the threat of communism. Kennedy had voted to continue funding the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and favored the latest version of the Mundt-Nixon internal-security bill. Like Nixon, he strongly hinted that Truman’s policy of vacillation had led to “losing” China and inviting Communist advances in Korea. He favored aid to Franco’s Spain and vast increases in the Pentagon budget.
Both congressmen felt that organized labor had grown too powerful. Earlier that year, upon receiving an honorary degree at Notre Dame, Kennedy had warned of the “ever expanding power of the Federal government” and “putting all major problems” into the all-absorbing hands of the great Leviathan the state....
Speaking to a group of students at Harvard three days after the election that autumn, Congressman Kennedy remarked that he was “personally very happy” that Nixon had defeated Helen Douglas. He reportedly explained that Douglas was “not the sort of person I like working with on committees,” but he did not make clear whether this was because of her manner, her politics, or her gender. On November 14, Kennedy wrote his friend Paul Fay, “I was glad to…see Nixon win by a big vote,” and he predicted that the winner would go far in national GOP politics, for he was “an outstanding guy.”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/168769/when-jfk-backed-nixon-against-progressive-woman#
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
Amazing thing about this pair is that I think they would have really gotten each other. Not liked each other at all but here's two proper old-school prewar assholes who probably saw most of the changes taking place in America through fairly similar lense
oh you weren't talking about Morbs and balls
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
JFK ran "to the right" of Nixon on the missile gap (which didn't exist). He talked tougher than Ike ever did.
LBJ and Nixon had mutual respect: both in the Congress at the same time, both loving J. Edgar Hoover. Nixon more afraid of LBJ, who wasn't afraid of anyone. Never understood why in the last year of his life he didn't just say "ah fuck it I'm dying" and release what he knew about the Nixon people and Chennault.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
ask Oliver Stone
certainly by 1969 Nixon was scared shitless of J Edgar
you can tell i'm a postwar asshole bcz i'm culling my FB friends list
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 17:43 (nine years ago) link
In everything I've ever read on Nixon, I think it's the commonly held view that he and LBJ were in sync on most everything by '68 and '69.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 19:30 (nine years ago) link
Nixon and Haldeman were careful to give LBJ any national security briefings they got: keep your enemies close, etc
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 19:35 (nine years ago) link
I can't quite remember--was it LBJ's preference even that Nixon won in '68? I know that seems like a stretch, but I seem to remember that he had very mixed feelings about Humphrey.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 19:44 (nine years ago) link
LBJ was a mess by the end. He held evidence that Nixon's people had approached through an independent operative (Chennaut) the South Vietnamese about holding out (prob because LBJ had bugged Nixon's people) and thought Nixon would try to dismantle the Great Society.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 19:46 (nine years ago) link
These guys - Nixon, John Dean, Bob Haldeman - trying to figure out how to excuse their tape recordings by using the "he did it too!" defense, going back to LBJ bugging Nixon's plane and discovering the whole Chennault affair.
President Nixon: The difficulty with using it, of course, is that it reflects on Johnson.
Dean: Right.
President Nixon: He ordered it. If it weren't for that, I'd use it. Is there any way we could use it without reflecting on Johnson? How--“could we say that the Democratic National Committee did it? No, the FBI did the bugging, though.
Haldeman: That's the problem.
Dean: Is it going to reflect on Johnson or Humphrey?
Haldeman: Johnson. Humphrey didn't do it.
Dean: Humphrey didn't do it?
President Nixon: Oh, hell no.
Haldeman: He was bugging Humphrey, too.
All three men laugh.
President Nixon: Well, God damn.
Haldeman laughs.
― pplains, Wednesday, 6 August 2014 21:58 (nine years ago) link
Nixon was in the Senate while LBJ was there, not to mention he was VP when LBJ was Senate Majority Leader. the real story is that there's so little about their interactions till 1968 or so -- given all of the info about the both of them out there now, neither was really on the other's radar until late in the game. unless there's some book on LBJ and Nixon interacting that i've missed.
― 뉴 메탈은 나머지 모든 보지 똥, 거기입니다 최고의 음악이다 (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:03 (nine years ago) link
The President's Club and Master of the Senate mention their relationship. Remember: Nixon was four years a congressman but barely in the Senate (he didn't finish his term). Their paths started crossing when Nixon was veep and LBJ was minority then majority leader.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 August 2014 22:15 (nine years ago) link
DICK: Johnson was all in the bugging. He had the mics in the compartment, picking up everything. Tell you what, probably every conversation I had on that plane was violated, Mr. Hey Hey back there with his headphones on.
BOB: Hubert getting his bugging from Johnson too, if you know what I mean.
DICK: Well, god damn yeah.
― pplains, Thursday, 7 August 2014 00:03 (nine years ago) link
Here's the famous chat in which LBJ signals to Nixon, "I'm on to your shit." Reportedly Nixon's aides laughed hysterically in the background.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52PQxRMGraA
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 August 2014 00:17 (nine years ago) link
pplains doing some truly expert curation itt
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:32 (nine years ago) link
George Wallace: Hello?
― pplains, Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:41 (nine years ago) link
I mean seriously. I'm posting a screengrab instead of a copy-and-paste to illustrate not so much what was said (though that's more important), but just to illustrate how ludicrous that phone call must have been. (Hell, the audio's on that link above, hear it for yourself.)
http://i.imgur.com/yVrRB7e.png
― pplains, Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:49 (nine years ago) link
so um did anyone notice that George Fucking Will confirmed what Hersh, Hitchens, Robert Parry, etc already knew: that Nixon sabotaged the '68 peace talks?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-nixons-long-shadow/2014/08/06/fad8c00c-1ccb-11e4-ae54-0cfe1f974f8a_story.html
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:07 (nine years ago) link
Weird. Why?
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:11 (nine years ago) link
why what?
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:13 (nine years ago) link
I dont get why this is a thing he would write about, what his conservative angle is
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:21 (nine years ago) link
To admit that a former GOP prez wasnt just a criminal but a traitor
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:22 (nine years ago) link
he's always loathed Nixon, and look at the last paragraphs about the IRS: note the implicit Obama dig.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:22 (nine years ago) link
Minor weird aside: John Dean is on twitter - @JohnWDean
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:24 (nine years ago) link
He's got a new Watergate book too.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:27 (nine years ago) link
I don't Twitter, but Nixon is possibly the only person ever I would have followed. Him, some liquor in close proximity, and a laptop--you couldn't ask for anything more.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:29 (nine years ago) link
Really, somebody fully fluent in Nixonese ought to set up a fake account--possibly somebody already has.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:31 (nine years ago) link
be the change you want to see in the world
― Treeship, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:32 (nine years ago) link
as nixon himself famously said, if i'm not mistaken
― Treeship, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:33 (nine years ago) link
Goddammit, Bob, this time we're playing for keeps. Fuck them all--maybe I will. (Seriously, I'd lose interest quickly. But someone could pull it off, like that Old Hoss Radbourn account--get on there and comment on everything that happens in Nixon's voice.)
― clemenza, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:39 (nine years ago) link
Billy West described his Nixon voice for Futurama as "being on the verge of turning into a werewolf." Can't shake that description.
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 13 August 2014 22:48 (nine years ago) link
― clemenza, Wednesday, August 13, 2014 5:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
https://twitter.com/dick_nixon
― ♪♫ teenage wasteman ♪♫ (goole), Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:02 (nine years ago) link
Hillary is well-positioned to be the New Nixon; hopefully on an election eve she'll go on TV and say "It's down to the nut-cutting."
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:07 (nine years ago) link
(xpost) Thanks--figured someone would already have that underway. I'm scrolling through, and it's sometimes pretty good: "Betty Bacall was never one of our people. One of that goddamn Benedict Canyon crowd."
― clemenza, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:23 (nine years ago) link
haha this is pretty amazing.
― piscesx, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:31 (nine years ago) link
Eh.
― pplains, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:39 (nine years ago) link
@GovJayNixon Remember a dead man once won your seat so I wouldn't get comfortable, understand?
Carnahan was the governor who won a Senate seat posthumously.
― pplains, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:40 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/doTI3uH.png
― pplains, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:47 (nine years ago) link
"Bird! I told ya to stop printin' these damn TWEETS."
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:49 (nine years ago) link
Haaa, I think I see what you did there.
― pplains, Thursday, 14 August 2014 15:50 (nine years ago) link
Almost too obvious, but if Nixon and Watergate were relocated to today's world, the Senate committee would have been requesting hard drives and combing through deleted e-mails and Facebook posts and Tweets to reconstruct the story. Or not...maybe there was something about a secret taping system that was more psychologically in sync with Nixon; maybe he would have had some variation on essentially the same set-up in 2014.
― clemenza, Thursday, 14 August 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link
they would have their own internet
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 14 August 2014 16:08 (nine years ago) link
That's sort of what I was saying above. Of all the presidents in U.S. history, it's going to be shady secretive Nixon whose word-for-word conversations will be available to future generations still to come.
Wonder what Obama said to McDonough yesterday? You'll have better luck finding out who Haldeman thinks will beat the spread in the 1971 AFC championship game.
― pplains, Thursday, 14 August 2014 16:23 (nine years ago) link
watched HBOs Nixon on Nixon last night back to back with 'Double Take' on Mubi... more Nixon than any one man should have to cope with in 2014 imo
― go ahead. make vid where u rap about this new TMNT movie. (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 14 August 2014 17:34 (nine years ago) link
Lies. No such thing as too much dick.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 14 August 2014 17:37 (nine years ago) link
Guess that bundt needs a bigger pan.
― You are exactly why people root for the apes (Eric H.), Thursday, 14 August 2014 17:39 (nine years ago) link
Favorite hitter, Williams; pitcher, Koufax. He remembers arcane details surprisingly well. At one point, he mentions getting back from Russia in 1959, when he says the Senators were coming off an 8-game losing streak, and that he went to the next game and they won. I checked that...He got back Aug. 5; the Senators were indeed in the midst of a seventeen game losing streak at the time. They played a double-header on Aug. 5; lost the first game to make it 18, won the second. I can't find the start time of the second game, but maybe he attended that one. Which would be pretty close for a 65-year-old guy remembering something 19 years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVn_Odo0I4Q
― clemenza, Saturday, 6 December 2014 13:25 (nine years ago) link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11514352/Richard-Nixons-Western-White-House-goes-up-for-sale-for-75m.html
I'm very open to a group bid on this.
― clemenza, Friday, 3 April 2015 18:12 (nine years ago) link
Too bad there are never open houses for those types of places around here. It's a 20 minute drive away
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 4 April 2015 00:53 (nine years ago) link
reading Caro's bios I'm kinda struck by the similarities between Nixon and LBJ, the harsh, humiliating conditions of their youth, their flexible political positions, their pathological need for power, their self-destructiveness
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 30 June 2016 16:26 (seven years ago) link