From Jonathan Bernstein:
Agnew resigned on Oct. 10; the court ruling that precipitated the tapes crisis between Richard Nixon and Archibald Cox came down on the 12th, the same day Gerald Ford was nominated for vice president; and Nixon fired Cox on Oct. 20.
What’s striking is Drew’s analysis — which I think reflects the conventional wisdom of the time — of Nixon’s reaction to Agnew’s growing legal troubles before his resignation. The vice president, she says, was a favorite of Republican conservatives:
The President appears to be trapped by, and somewhat frightened of, the Vice-President. Reporters’ conversations with with White House staff members confirm this. The President is said to be worried that the Vice-President will turn his constituency against the President … Richard Nixon selected Spiro Agnew as his running mate in 1968 in order to build a certain constituency, and kept him on the ticket in 1972 because Agnew had succeeded in doing so. Now that Nixon is in trouble, he needs Agnew’s constituency.
Drew went on to say that Agnew “appealed to the anger and discontent in America” and “articulated grievances” against the news media and others. All true — except it turned out that when Agnew resigned in disgrace, it wasn’t “his” constituency at all. He was just borrowing it, and once he resigned, Agnew immediately faded into irrelevance while the constituency marched on.
It wasn’t his. It wasn’t George Wallace’s. It wasn’t, and isn’t, anyone’s — not even Ronald Reagan’s. It’s certainly not Sarah Palin’s. And I’m fairly sure it’s not Donald Trump’s, either.