Agnew Unleashed

The White House protests, perhaps too much, that Spiro Agnew is not "on a leash." that he does not have to clear his speeches with headquarters. If that accurately reflects the Agnew-Nixon relationship, it would seem to be one of the stronger arguments for censorship.

During last fall's campaign, the gaffes that made Agnew the household word that he said he wasn't ("fat Jap," "when you've seen one slum you've seen them all." et al.) were off-the-cuff blunders. These days his atrocities are premeditated. He seems unable to help it. The left, intellectuals, protesters, Democrats, just aren't his kind of folks.

In Dallas, he decried unrest on American campuses as the work of a "minority of pushy youngsters and middle-aged malcontents." Last week the Vice President complained in Jackson, Miss., that the South has too long been "the punching bag for those who characterize themselves as liberal intellectuals." Maybe he had a point about the South, but he outdid himself in New Orleans by saying of the Oct. 15 Moratorium: "A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

The Jordan Rule. The instant outrage greeting the last sally showed that Agnew's intended targets are hardly exhausted. Perhaps the best put-down though, was the calm one that came from Senator William Fulbright. He wasn't disturbed by the attack, said the Foreign Relations Committee Chairman; "I just considered the source." The newest gag in the G.O.P. Senate cloakroom:

Q. What is the new definition of effete?

A. Effete is what Spiro puts in his mouth.

When he isn't amusing Republicans on Capitol Hill, the Vice President is infuriating them. Toward the end of the long dispute over extending the income tax surcharge, Agnew attempted to intervene on behalf of the Administration's position. His intrusion in the delicate bargaining caused disruption rather than progress. Later, Idaho Senator Len Jordan, normally one of the most loyal and quiet of Republicans, promulgated the Jordan rule: "Whenever I am lobbied by the Vice President, I will automatically vote the opposite way."

Apparently Agnew learned nothing from the summer tax fight. Last week, when Maine Democrat Edmund Muskie proposed that the U.S. unilaterally halt testing MIRV nuclear warheads for six months, the Vice President issued the admonition that "no responsible person would propose that the President play Russian roulette with U.S. security.' Agnew seemed to have overlooked the fact that Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke and 42 other Senators were already promoting a resolution in favor of a bilateral recess in MIRV testing pending the start of Soviet-American arms control talks. The measure had seemed to be stuck until Agnew spoke out. Now Majority Leader Mike Mansfield wants the Foreign Relations Committee to begin hearings on it as soon as possible--a move that would discomfort the Administration.

Parent Power. One of Spiro Agnew's problems is simply candor. He is a blunt man with strong views, and he wants the world to know about them. Last week he told a Newsday columnist, Nick Thimmesch, that he had prevented his daughter Kim, 13, from marching and wearing a black armband on Moratorium Day. "She was unhappy about it for a day," Agnew said, "but she got over it. Parental-type power must be exercised."

But candor and the desire to let off steam--understandable in an energetic man with little else to do--are not the only explanation for Agnew's behavior. His demand that the Moratorium leaders repudiate Hanoi's endorsement of the movement, for instance, came immediately after a Nixon-Agnew meeting. While other Republican officials have spoken calmly and even sympathetically of the M-day dissenters, Agnew has been there to remind the Administration's harder-nosed constituents that Washington is not going soft. The precedent is almost too obvious. During the '50s, it was Vice President Nixon who played the blue-jowled meanie to Eisenhower's statesman. Lyndon Johnson occasionally used Hubert Humphrey in similar fashion. Now it is Agnew's turn to be pugilist, and he seems to be enjoying it.

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