Known and Unknown - Donald Rumsfeld [76]
We established a tiered system based on the size of the companies to be regulated. We freed smaller companies from the controls, placed only modest reporting requirements on medium-sized companies, and focused on the larger companies that could better handle the burdens. They had the resources of large law, accounting, and lobbying firms to effectively deal with the federal government.
Our nonpolitical, nonpartisan approach to the work of the cost of living program did not sit well with everyone. The different interpretations of how the powers of the CLC should be used led to some difficult encounters. Joyce could often tell who was on the other end of the phone based on how much colorful language I used. When Ehrlichman called, he would rail against the decisions of various entities that made up the Economic Stabilization Program. I had to explain repeatedly that once the President gave them the powers to make decisions, we had little choice but to live with them.18
From the outset, I was deeply concerned that the CLC would be tarnished with allegations of political favoritism and corruption. As a result, we spent a great deal of effort trying to make sure that that did not happen. During the time that I was director of the Cost of Living Council, to my knowledge there was only one accusation that a staff member might have a conflict of interest. When I heard about it, I sent it straight to the Justice Department, where it was promptly found to be groundless. In a presidential election year—especially in the Nixon administration that particular election year—I considered it an amazing, indeed an almost unbelievable, accomplishment that there was not one instance of wrongdoing. Public officials generally don’t get credit or awards for avoiding potholes, but our group at CLC deserved an award for the many bad things that did not happen on our watch.
A consequence of my service as director of the CLC was that it put still further distance between Nixon’s closest political aides and me. Not being deeply involved in the 1972 campaign, however, turned out to be a considerably bigger blessing than I could possibly have imagined.
As the election year heated up, Nixon was heading toward what some political experts said would be a close reelection fight. During much of the prior year, Nixon’s job approval rating had hovered at just under 50 percent in the Gallup polls. While I personally liked the eventual Democratic nominee, South Dakota Senator George McGovern, I did not believe he would be a strong candidate for president. I came to know him while I was serving in Congress. He was to the left of the country, and his platform seemed weak. But McGovern did have an advantage, the same advantage Kennedy and Humphrey had had in Nixon’s previous contests: He projected warmth.
I wrote a memo for the President, noting that McGovern’s “warmth, concern, and decency are appealing.” I suggested that the administration seek opportunities to highlight Nixon’s interest in the problems of ordinary Americans. I believed Nixon did care about improving people’s quality of life but that he just preferred to view and discuss things in theoretical, rather than personal, terms. That didn’t always come across positively in that new media age. “A danger for our administration is that in its competence we seem harsh, in our strength we seem tough, in our pragmatism we seem goal-less and ideal-less.” Finally, I offered a warning, perhaps reflecting concerns I was starting to have about operations at the White House. “The campaign,” I wrote, “must scrupulously avoid going ‘over the line.’”19
Even if anyone had listened to that advice, it came a bit late. On June 19, 1972, three days after I sent that memo to the President, the