BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

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Campaign 1996

For me it was the campaign of my lifetime.  No race ever equaled the life altering impact of that year in my life. This was the year that I got to see up-close two of the political figures I most admired, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and Strom Thurmond. The South Carolina Presidential Primary turned out to be the most important of all the primaries that year as Bob Dole was in a fight for his political Presidential survival and two Governors and Strom Thurmond stepped in to help him win it. 

Then that same organization stepped up to insure that Strom Thurmond was re-elected to a 8th term. I was a tiny little cog as a volunteer and College Republican Chairman at Lander University in Greenwood S.C. and after graduating I helped out in my hometown of Myrtle Beach. I had been around politics all my life but it was 1996 that I got to be right there, for the first time, at the feet of two of the political figures I most admired as they campaigned across South Carolina, first in the upstate for Dole and then for Thurmond in the Low Country. 

In the Thurmond race there really was only one issue and that was the Senator's age. National publications were trying to cast doubt on the Senator's mental fitness ( a totally bogus charge, I was there and the man was amazing) , the Democrats from Washington D.C. had recruited a billionaire member of the Springs Mills family, a huge textile company, in Elliot Close, and finally there had begun an influx of new residents into the state that were not as familiar with Thurmond's actual record of constituent service as the native Carolinians had been. If ever Senator Thurmond appeared to be vulnerable in his 74 year career, this was it. 

But D.C. just did not know S.C. as well as it thought it did. 

Thurmond put together an incredible team to shore up his political defenses. He had two governors, Carroll Campbell and David Beasley working on his behalf, arguably one of the best Republican Party Chairmen in the nation  in Henry McMaster working for him, and three legendary political campaign people working on his behalf in Manager Tony Denny, and consultants Cindy Carter Thompson and a very young Robert Cahaly (The Trafalgar Group) all on the team.  Not only that, he had the State's Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler and its Speaker of the House David Wilkins on Board and Myrtle Beach's famous State Representative Mark Kelly all working overtime to insure Thurmond won.  

And let's not forget, the two day - 10 county nonstop bus trip across the state, known as "The Thurmondator Bus Tour" where Strom Thurmond himself barnstormed the state, courthouse to courthouse, festival to festival, just like a campaign of old. 

Elliot Close did not know what hit him. 

This episode is that story and you will be able to relive as much of it as I was able to save. 

By the time this show is over you will be quoting the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, "I feel Good!!!"  As Mr. Brown makes an appearance  to help Senator Thurmond celebrate this final election victory to capstone his incredible life and career. 

** I wish to acknowledge the fine work of WIS TV 10,  SC ETV, and CNN for their news broadcasts that we used in putting these three podcasts together, much of which was aired over a three day period when the senator passed away. 

Questions or comments at  , [email protected] ,  https://twitter.com/randal_wallace   , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In our second episode on the life of Senator Strom Thurmond we center on his impact personally on his constituents and his career as a United States Senator, as SC ETV referred to it,  as his time "At the Seat of Power". 

In this episode you will hear stories of the Senator's remarkable life and career and how he constantly worked to help the average everyday South Carolinian who counted on and trusted him.  You will hear from Congressman Joe Wilson, Congressman Gresham Barrett, and State Senator John Courson. You will also hear from an array of national figures who talk about the Senator's work and influence in Washington D.C. itself. 

This episode includes my all time favorite story about Senator Thurmond, that I have featured more than once in my book and this podcast. It is a story told by Utah Senator Bob Bennett about a passport for a 19 year old newlywed, Secretary of State George Shultz, and quieting some doubts about the Senator's chances of winning the 1996 Senate race at the age of 94.  It is a story that will make you grin from ear to ear.

And it is a story that shows why Strom Thurmond is widely seen as the most effective political figure that has ever sat in congress when it comes to helping others. 

** I wish to acknowledge the fine work of WIS TV 10,  SC ETV, and CNN for their news broadcasts that we used in putting these three podcasts together, much of which was aired over a three day period when the senator passed away. 

Questions or comments at  , [email protected] ,  https://twitter.com/randal_wallace   , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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Strom Thurmond, A LIFE in Full, is our special three part look at the life of Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.  Senator Thurmond is actually the person we focused our very first episode on when we started this podcast. It was the first in our 11 part series that put a spotlight on the leadership lessons we could learn from the World War 2 Generation and how we could apply those lessons to today's issues.  The lessons I chose to focus on in that episode was his conscious decision to change and his decision not to fight the same old battles over and over again after it was clear that he had lost.  Don't you wish today's leaders would pay attention to those two lessons? 

Strom Thurmond bares the distinction of being the one historical figure out of all that our show has covered that I actually knew. While we were not friends he was someone I dealt with fairly often between 1991 and 1997 and met with again in 2000 and as a freshman city council member in my first three months in office while he was serving his final year in March of 2002, when the Senator was 99 years old. 

I was , however, able to get to know his sister Mrs. Martha Bishop of Greenwood S.C. fairly well and years later I helped Senator Thurmond's son, Paul Thurmond,  in his bid to run for the United States Congress from a District that ran between Myrtle Beach and Charleston , South Carolina. I came away from these encounters with an extraordinarily high regard for the entire Thurmond Family. It is from that viewpoint that I have put together all of the shows that have focused either entirely or partially on Senator Strom Thurmond. I honestly feel that those listeners who did not know or remember Senator Thurmond could benefit from hearing more about the man who served our state for a remarkable 74 years.  

Due to the Senator's more ancient past, when he was involved in leading the fight against the civil rights movement, much of what most people know or remember, is that era, and only that era, of his career. They ignore his early career when he was actually viewed as progressive for a Southern political figure, and his later career when he shifted on the issue of civil rights and helped lead not just South Carolina but the entire South away from its past on the subject of race. 

This episode starts a three part look at his life and it covers his overall entire biography, and a focused look at this personal relationship with his daughter Essie Mae Washington Williams, and his change on civil rights, a change that was widely noted at the time of his death in June of 2003., but largely ignored today.

Then we will move on in our second and third episodes to looking at his life as a Senator and his impact both big and small on his constituents, and finally a look back at his final campaign for re-election to the United States Senate against Democratic businessman Elliot Close. A campaign in which I volunteered and had the extraordinary experience  to get to be up-close on a few occasions to the largest political figure South Carolina produced in the 20th century.  For me, it was one of the most important experiences of my lifetime. 

** I wish to acknowledge the fine work of WIS TV 10,  SC ETV, and CNN for their news broadcasts that we used in putting these three podcasts together, much of which was aired over a three day period when the senator passed away. 

Questions or comments at  , [email protected] ,  https://twitter.com/randal_wallace   , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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Our new ad for the podcast , that will air on other podcasts on Buzzsprout. This is the second ad and advertises for our current 5 season series on Vietnam. Let us know what you think!! 

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Buzzsprout has started letting our podcasts produce ads, We put together two of them. This ad is for our entire Podcast series of shows. Let us know what you think!! 

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In our 1973 Enemies at the Gate  season finale, we look at the explosive circumstances around the 2 missing calls and an 18 1/2 minute gap on one conversation in the tapes requested by the prosecutor's office. It sets the prosecutors off and the Judge does it all with the maximum of theatrics to insure the spotlight shines brightly on him, John J. Sirica.  It will all set the stage for the contentious year to come in 1974. 

At the sametime the appointment to the Vice Presidency sails through the Senate with a 97 - 3 vote to make Gerald R. Ford the 40th Vice President of the United States. We will sit in for the vote and hear the new Vice President address the nation. It is in this address he very humbly says to the nation "I am a Ford not a Lincoln". It is that humbleness that will serve Ford well over the next year as it becomes increasingly certain that he will end up President of the United States. 

We wrap up 1973 with an address by President Richard Nixon as he lights the Washington D.C. christmas tree and tries once again to put the nation back on track. But 1973 turns out not to be the year the nation had hoped for after the long protracted war in Vietnam. The divisions caused by that war are now breaking apart the very administration that had been able to set us free from its poisonous effect. 

But it appears that in 1974, Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, may end up its final casualty.

FYI - Our next season will begin in August with 1974 Through the Fire.
Next week join us for a special three part series on South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond.

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As the year winds down several things are happening at once. Representative Gerald R. Ford begins the process of being confirmed for Vice President. The entire procedure is a first under the new 25th amendment to the Constitution.  Ironically, it would be used again in 1974 to confirm Nelson Rockefeller. The process was about the only easy thing confronting Nixon at the moment as he has two other major things to contend with at the same time. 

The OPEC Arab nations in retaliation for our helping Israel order an oil embargo which causes an energy crisis in the United States. In yet another moment of crisis President Nixon goes right to work to come up with a plan that would have made our nation energy independent by 1980. It was not implemented due to the growing crisis over Watergate.  Another of his brilliant plans thwarted by the desire of democrats to remove him from office. 

Then there is the selection and arrival of a new Special Prosecutor, Leon Jaworski. He was selected by the White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig along with Robert Bork, the acting Attorney General. Jaworski was a seasoned prosecutor who had actually prosecuted war criminals in Germany after World War 2 and turned down a chance to prosecute criminals at Nuremberg.  He was renown in legal circles and was by reputation a very formidable man. When he arrives you will see the Watergate investigation pick up speed. However, he was not the only new arrival. President Nixon hired his own lawyer, James St. Clair, and this will also change the ballgame as the prosecutors and the Judge find that this formidable man is someone they can't jerk around as they had been doing the Nixon team. 

Still the rabid partisans at the Watergate Special Prosecutor's office are determined to run over Jaworski if necessary to get at their target, Richard Nixon, and as the end of the year approached you will see it is an uneasy relationship between the new prosecutor and the staff his predecessor had assembled. 

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In this episode we bring this historic month to an end. The Israeli's agree to a ceasefire with Egypt and Syria at the behest of our government and negotiated by Henry Kissinger.  The ending of the war where it was, would eventually help lead to the Camp David Accords between  two of the three countries involved, that would come to fruition years later by President Jimmy Carter.  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat probably lost his life for his willingness to reach out for peace with Israel as well. 

The aftermath of the Saturday Night Massacre also weakened President Nixon's position and was the catalyst for the first real push to move toward impeachment against him.  In my opinion, one clear hero of the events emerged, Robert Bork the Solicitor General.  It would come at a price a decade later when Ted Kennedy mauled him and worked to steal his dream of becoming a Supreme Court Justice. No matter those events, Robert Bork would become and continue to be a hero to the conservatives of America and his mistreatment at the hands of Ted Kennedy was the single event that galvanized a movement that would eventually succeed in getting six conservative justices on today's Supreme Court. 

We end this show with a long segment that dealt with two of the historic events of October 1973 with the only real heroic figure to emerge from these events, Robert Bork. 

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SHOWDOWN!!

There was no question that after a junior officer of the Federal Government faced down the President of the United States on National Television that that junior officer was not going to have his job long and Archibald Cox didn't.  Richard Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire him. Richardson refused, as did his next in line William Ruckelshaus before finally the true hero of the night stepped up and did the deed. Robert Bork, the Solicitor General, fired Cox and then held the Justice Department together for two and a half months all while being under attack for having done the right thing,  Richard Nixon was , contrary to popular belief, justified in that decision. 

We were dangerously close to a war with the Soviet Union as both sides sat on the sidelines helping the two sides of a conflict in the Middle East. In fact, this was the closest the two nations had come since the Cuban Missile Crisis a decade before. There was no way that Richard Nixon was going to let Archibald Cox, nor his Special Prosecution Force, get away with such insubordination at such a moment. I would dare say that the history you have read about would have looked totally different had it involved any other President other than Richard Nixon. That is how egregious this act by Cox was no matter how avuncular he appeared that night on television. 

The chain of events this situation set off changed everything for President Nixon and it was largely in my opinion unfair. Archibald Cox should never have been appointed in the first place. He was a known Nixon hater, puppet of the Kennedy family, and he loaded up his staff with rabid partisans that either came from the Kennedy-Johnson Administrations or were prosecutors who had spent years chasing gangsters and treated the Nixon staffers as though they were members of a crime family. 

From this point on Richard Nixon was at war with a prosecution staff , who in my opinion, was willing to do , say, and perform any sleight of hand necessary to get the only target they were actually focused on, the facts be damned. And that target was Richard Nixon, and they cared not who all's lives they had to ruin to do it. 

FYI - We will be returning to this event in next seasons shows,

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Spiro Agnew resigns on October 10, 1973, the Arab Forces go on another offensive on October 11, 1973 all the while the Special Prosecutor's continue to push forward trying to get their hands on the Presidential recordings. Tom Brokaw of NBC News is right to describe the situation as "Richard Nixon was a President under siege." He seemed to be facing historic level crisis everywhere he looked. 

Nixon went right to work to insure the Israeli government  would have everything they needed to defend themselves and he was given some hope by his Attorney General that finally a deal could be struck not to hand over the tapes. He was determined not to give in to the mounting pressure of allowing the prosecutor's free run over the Nixon White House. That hope would turn out to be false. 

Attorney General Elliot Richardson would waffle around on a proposal for third party verification of the tapes, in a compromise originally proposed by Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox himself. But when it was originally proposed Richard Nixon had turned the idea down and pursued his options in court. The court would rule against him 5 -2 but add that they wanted the party's to find a deal themselves. So Richardson took the initiative to re propose the compromise that had been earlier rejected.  It is a little murky as to what exactly happened or if it was all a misunderstanding  but an idea was proposed that a prominent, well respected Senator, John Stennis, a Democrat from Mississippi would listen to the tapes and verify what he heard on them. 

Stennis was a man of unquestioned character, (though he was a southerner and a segregationist) , he was also elderly, hard of hearing, and a huge supporter of the Republican President.  The Prosecutors wanted  no part of this deal and I actually can understand the reasoning on this point. However, it was Archibald Cox's idea, and though he now had a court decision saying he should get the tapes  he had asked for,  it could  reasonably be argued that in good faith he should have honored his original proposal. But either way he chose to hold a press conference and face down the President of the United States while the President was dealing with an enormous crisis in Israel and for that a showdown became inevitable. 

This episode takes you right up to that moment just before the most famous of showdowns happened and it  includes Archibald Cox's press conference. 

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