Heres a name all of you Baby Boomers will remember -- Spiro T. Agnew, 39th Vice President of the United States. He would have been 95 today, born Nov. 9, 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland. Agnew resigned the Vice Presidency in 1973 after pleading no contest to charges of federal tax evasion. Government prosecutors made public evidence that supported charges that Vice President Agnew had pocketed more than $100,000 in bribes as a County Executive, Governor of Maryland and Vice President. The bribes were paid by construction firms to obtain Maryland state contracts. There was also evidence that Agnew at least once as Vice President accepted an envelope containing $10,000 in cash from a contractor as late payment for favors rendered while Agnew was Governor of Maryland. Agnew went to his grave denying any guilt, claiming in his 1980 memoirs, Go Quietly ... Or Else, that he resigned not to escape prosecution but because he thought that White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig might try to have him assassinated if he remained in the Vice Presidency, knowing that President Nixon was on his way out because of the Watergate Scandal. After Agnew resigned 9 months into his second term, he and Nixon never spoke to each other again. In a gesture of reconciliation, Nixons daughters, Tricia and Julie, invited Agnew to Nixons funeral in 1994 and Agnew did attend. As Vice President, Agnew made quite a name for himself as Nixons attack dog, going after Administration critics, describing them as nattering nabobs of negativism and effete impudent snobs and more. His shoot-from-the-hip remarks during the 1968 Presidential campaign (Youve seen one city slum, youve seen them all) made him a target of ridicule, as shown in this unforgettable ad from Hubert Humphreys Presidential Campaign: youtube/watch?v=Qwk_epMblW4
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 00:03:14 +0000
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