Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Hey, Republicans: Whose Party Is This, Anyway?

Jonathan Bernstein's morning links.

April 17, 2018 at 1:25 PM UTC

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

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I've been re-reading Elizabeth Drew's "Washington Journal: The Events of 1973-1974," as one does in these times. As people may not recall, the scandal that took down Vice President Spiro Agnew peaked just before the Saturday Night Massacre. 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: