The Comeback Gentleman

[erſatz-york]

Go, Dick, go!

[America Needs R'hllor]

Awh, Brown. I actually thought Nixon would go for the Senate, since that's an office where he can be more visible nationally.

[DKrol]

Awh, Brown. I actually thought Nixon would go for the Senate, since that's an office where he can be more visible nationally.

A valid point, but I went with Governor because it allows him to be in the Executive position and have more authority as a single individual.

[DKrol]

Part VIII - Growing Pains

Richard Nixon’s gubernatorial career got off to a rocky start

When Nixon took office in Sacramento in the first week of January, 1979, he was already looking towards the future. Former Governor Ronald Reagan, Secretary of State George H.W. Bush, and Senator John Danforth - all prospective Republican candidates for 1980 - made journeys to the the Governor’s Mansion in that first month of Nixon’s term. Nixon, seeing the writing on the wall from the Midterms, dissuaded Bush and Danforth from running in 1980, predicting any Republican candidate would lose. Nixon did not give the same advice to Reagan, seeing him as a potential rival as Nixon continued his return to prominence.

Nixon was forced to return his focus to Californian affairs at the end of January. A 16-year-old girl, Brenda Spencer, opened fire on the elementary school across the street from her house, killing two staff members and injuring 9 students. Police surrounded the house within minutes of the shots ringing out, but Spencer turned her fire on the officers and halted them from storming in and arresting her. Nixon sent the National Guard to the San Diego neighborhood and relieved local police of their control over the situation. Under Nixon’s command, the National Guard maintained a perimeter and attempted to negotiate Spencer out of the house. After a 17-hour standoff which ended up killing 1 police officer and 1 National Guardsman in the quiet, residential neighborhood, Nixon gave the commands to storm the house and take the girl into custody.

In the twilight of the early morning, a National Guard tactical team stormed the house, using smoke grenades, tear gas, and axes to force their way into the barricaded house. Spencer had set her rifle on the ground outside the door of the bedroom she cloistered away in. The National Guard team was worried, however, that she had another gun aimed at the door. As soon as they broke down the door, an officer fired six shots at Spencer as she was curled up on the floor, with a notebook and a pen in her hands. As they removed the body from the house, a news helicopter trained its camera onto the lifeless body, and the officer covered in blood. The image led every newscast for a week.

Comparisons were drawn immediately between Spencer’s death and the Kent State Massacre Nixon had presided over as President. Protesters flooded the State Capitol building and newspaper article criticized Nixon for being trigger-happy and “over enthusiastic” in his use of the National Guard “where local police forces would suffice.” A statement from the Governor’s Office emphasised the fact that Spencer had killed 4 people in her rampage and injured 9 school children, giving officers a reason to be on edge, but it did little to alleviate criticism of Nixon. Nixon himself attended the funeral for the slayed police officer and National Guardsman, but neither of the school staff members who were killed, which did not repair his image.

1979 was not Richard Nixon’s year

Just as the fury over the death of Brenda Spencer was fading away, the jury returned their verdict in the case of Dan White, the assassin of Harvey Milk and George Moscone. The San Francisco jury convicted White of voluntary manslaughter, rather than the heavier charge of first-degree murder. This sparked the most violent riots by the American gay community in history. Within hours of the reading of the verdict, hundreds of young gay men and women took to the streets, smashing windows, flipping cars, and setting fire to trash cans.

Learning from the Spencer debacle, Nixon refused to send the National Guard into San Francisco to quell the riots. Unfortunately, leaving the situation to the San Francisco PD was the worse decision in this case. White was a former officer in the SFPD, which intensified the gay rioters’ anger towards the local police. The two forces clashed in violent combat all through the night. As the sun rose of San Francisco Bay, five San Francisco police officers and thirteen gay rioters had been killed, with scores more injured or arrested.

The White Night Riot pushed San Francisco, where gay tensions had been simmering for years, over the edge. Police raided known gay bars and clubs; gay men and women assaulted police officers in the street. When Mayor Dianne Feinstein emerged from City Hall to address the crowd in an effort to quell the tension, she was struck in the face by a rock and rushed back into City Hall, where a police barricade was established. This tension and violence continued in San Francisco for several days while Nixon watched with concern from Sacramento.

As the clashes stretched into the fourth day, Nixon was finally comfortable in sending in the National Guard. Upon the arrival of the heavily armed officers and their military-caliber anti-riot gear, the gay rioters began to disperse. The National Guard never fired a single shot in San Francisco and only accidentally injured a rioter (he twisted his ankle as a Guardsmen was moving him away from the crowd) but Nixon still came under fire for being slow to respond to the crisis. Nixon told an aid, “If I had sent the National Guard in on day one, the queers would have said I was beating them up. So I waited. And then they said I was letting chaos and disorder reign. I couldn’t win.”

Things weren’t looking great for Nixon’s gubernatorial career in 1979, but they were about to get a lot better.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Dan White deserved to rot in prison for his entire life. Glad to see this event was covered in the TL.

[DKrol]

Part IX - Mr. Ayatollah

The take-over of the American Embassy in Tehran would save the end of the decade for Richard Nixon

On November 4, 1979, more than 300 angry Iranian student protesters stormed the American embassy in Tehran, Iran. While their initial intent was only to symbolically hold the embassy and leave when government forces arrived to restore order, the government forces, instead, gave their support to the take-over, which included holding 52 American diplomats hostage. Ayatollah Khomeini used the take-over to accentuate his anti-Western rhetoric and stabilize his regime.

President Ford, preparing for his reelection campaign, initially underestimated the severity of the take-over. When National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft briefed Ford on the crisis on November 5, Ford showed little interest, thinking that the Iranian government would move to restore order by the end of the day. When they didn’t, Ford was still slow to respond, choosing to speak to the Canadians, Swiss, and British, who had their embassies nearby, rather than calling the Iranians directly. As the news of the take-over spread, the American people were clamoring for military action to save the hostages. Fearing being perceived as reactionary, Ford shut down any talks of a military response.

Nixon watched Ford flounder from California and fumed. Ford had been Nixon’s protege and, Nixon feared, a failure by Ford would reflect as a failure by Nixon. Henry Kissinger made a trip to Sacramento to brief Nixon on the matter on November 5 and Nixon sent a telegram to Ford later that day advising him to “act swiftly to protect American interests.” Ford ignored the telegram and continued with his passive, soft-strength approach. Nixon then attempted to call Ford at the White House and speak to him about the take-over, but he was rebuffed by the switchboard operator. It seemed like, after a rocky year as Governor of the Golden State, Nixon’s access to the White House had been cut off.

As the crisis drew on, Ford was forced to split his focus between Khomeini and Reagan

The crisis continued on into 1980. Ford lost the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary, to Ronald Reagan and Howard Baker, respectively, over attacks of a failure of leadership. He went on to withdraw from the primary in the first week of March to “devote the full measure” of his attention “to the continuing problems” in Iran. Nixon threw his support behind Reagan shortly after Ford withdrew; Nixon believed that Reagan would lose the election of 1980 and, therefore, be removed from the national political scene going forward. Nixon also hoped that, with Ford now focused entirely on the hostage crisis, he would be able to work his way back into the national policy stage again.

On the morning of April 12, the world woke up the news that, as dusk was settling in Iran, Ford had given the authorization to begin a military offensive to rescue the hostages. Two American helicopters flew towards the embassy but came under heavy fire from the ground. A shoulder-mounted rocket took out the propeller of one of the helicopters and sent it crashing into the second. All eight Americans involved in the mission perished on the ground outside of Tehran. Immediately, Ford came under heavy fire. Not since the darkest days of Watergate had the American presidency been under such heavy criticism. It became worse when the bodies were not able to be recovered.

Nixon was tired of waiting around for Ford to come crawling to him. Unbeknownst to the President, Nixon took an early-morning flight from California to Washington on April 15 and showed up to the visitors entrance of the White House around noontime demanding to see the President. The security guard didn’t believe it was actually Nixon and was about to call D.C. Police to come arrest the strange, angry man before a news crew spotted the comotion and came running over, asking Nixon if he was in Washington to advise the President on Iran. The embarrassed security guard quickly ushered the former President through the checkpoint and showed him to the Oval Office, where Ford had been rushed from a meeting with Girl Scouts when word of Nixon’s arrival came through.

Nixon admonished Ford for shoving him to the wayside during the crisis, begging him to “take advantage of the collective experiences” of the Presidents Club. Ford, obviously caught off guard, let it slip to Nixon that he was “struggling to keep up with” the crisis and the failure of the military operation had devastated him. Nixon gave Ford a verbal smackdown, using the ambience of the Oval Office to impress upon him the awesome power of the Presidency. At the end of the meeting, Nixon had worked his way behind the Resolute Desk, with Ford laying down on a couch nearby. Nixon picked up the phone and placed a call to the State Department. Two days later, Nixon was on a U.S. Military aircraft to Iraq.

On April 17, Nixon and a small State Department retinue made their way through Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein. Nixon secured support from Hussein for the United States in the hostage crisis, a major breakthrough in Iraqi-American relations. After meeting with Hussein, Nixon gave a major speech on behalf of the United States government from Firdos Square demanding the immediate release of the American hostages by the Iranians on the threat of “severe retaliatory efforts on behalf of humanity.” Nixon boldly declared “Mr. Ayatollah, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity and security for the Iranian people, if you seek stability around the Middle East - Mr. Ayatollah, open those gates. Mr. Ayatollah, let the Americans go.”

With the threat of military action, backed up by Iraqi pressures, Iranian national security forces stormed the American embassy on April 24 and removed the student protesters. Three days later, the hostages were put in a car and driven over the border to Iraq, where they were medically evaluated, flown to Belgium, where they received a second medical evaluation, and then on to Washington, D.C.

Richard Nixon was there to greet them at the tarmac.

OOC: Sorry for no update yesterday, but it was Opening Day. Go Sox!

[erſatz-york]

Nixon! Nixon! Nixon!

[vanteran]

Wouldn't Ford be constitutionally ineligible to run in 1980 as he served over 2 years of Nixon's second term? Great timeline by the way!

[DKrol]

Wouldn't Ford be constitutionally ineligible to run in 1980 as he served over 2 years of Nixon's second term? Great timeline by the way!

Umm....well, the Constitution doesn't reference running, it only refererences being elected. So Ford could run, he just couldn't win.... (AKA: I didn't realize Ford had more than 2 years of Nixon's term).

[Independents for Nihilism]

I hope you're keeping this going despite the hiccup of Ford being term limited (not that it changes things since he's not the 1980 nominee anyway), I'd love to see where your rehabilitated Nixon goes after basically resolving the hostage crisis singlehandedly. Does "Only Nixon could go to Iran" become a Vulcan proverb?

[DKrol]

This will be continuing! I went on vacation for a few days, so I haven't been able to post. But it will return soon!

[DKrol]

Part X - The Other Kennedy

Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy emerged as the new face of the Democratic Party

With Ford out of the way, Ronald Reagan easily won the 1980 Republican nomination and everyone, except for Reagan, saw the writing on the wall. As Nixon had predicted in 1978, any Republican would have been a sacrificial lamb going against any Democrat in 1980 after three terms of Republican control in the White House and a series of policy shortfalls by Ford. Jimmy Carter attempted to snag the nomination for a second time but faced stiff opposition from the left-wing of his party, namely Senator Ted Kennedy. Flying high on his family’s name, and money, Kennedy dragged the primary all the way to the convention and led a floor revolt against Carter. With a 2% majority, Kennedy emerged victorious from the New York City-based convention and, with Senator Gary Hart as his running mate, took the battle to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms.

Nixon chose not to campaign for Reagan-Helms, hoping to keep his name clear of the shame of a loss. Instead, Nixon criss-crossed the country on the trail for Senate and Congressional candidates. In his memoirs, Nixon wrote that “For each candidate I campaigned for, I was keeping a list of favors they owed me. A speech here, a fundraiser there. They knew I’d call to collect.” Nixon-supported candidates who found success at the ballot box included Barry Goldwater, Paula Hawkins, and Dan Quayle. Notably, California Senator Alan Cranston was able to fend off a challenge from Republican Paul Gann, who Nixon invested a lot of capital.

Reagan and Helms performed better than anyone expected, largely because Southern voters were uncomfortable voting for the Northern, liberal Kennedy but, at the end of the night, Kennedy was announced as the President-elect thanks to massive support from union workers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. In Congress, Democrats maintained a 53-47 majority in the Senate and, thanks to their massive margins from 1978, a healthy 227-208 majority in the House.

Kennedy/Hart (272) v. Reagan/Helms (266)

With Reagan vanquished after an embarrassing primary loss in 1976 and then a narrow loss in 1980, and many Congressional leaders unpopular, the natural leader of the Republican Party was Richard Nixon. It was widely expected that Nixon would use the national vacancy to serve as a natural counter to President Kennedy and to advance the conservative movement. Nature, however, had other plans. Days after Kennedy’s Inauguration in 1981, Nixon announced that he would not be seeking a second term as Governor of California. In a press conference outside of La Casa Pacifica, Nixon thanked the people of California “for investing in me their greatest confidence and loyalty.” On February 3, a statement from the Governor’s Office announced that Nixon would be stepping aside as Governor “with immediate effect”, making Lieutenant Governor Mike Curb acting governor, citing health troubles.

Four days later it was revealed Nixon was undergoing an intensive treatment for prostate cancer. Richard and Pat moved to a friend’s New York City townhouse while Nixon underwent treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Given Nixon’s age and history of illness, including a bought of phlebitis in 1974, doctors were very concerned when a routine screening found inflammation. Later tests confirmed that Nixon was suffering from prostate cancer with a Gleason Score of 6. After an initial round of radiation treatment, the prognosis became much better. President Kennedy sent a telegram to Nixon, and politicians from former President Ford to Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill made their way to New York to give their best wishes. After a small operation to remove the last infected cells in May, the Nixons returned to California in July.

Their plane was greeted by throngs of well-wishers when they landed at LAX. Richard kept his head down and hat on as he walked, with the aid of a cane and a security agent, from the plane to a waiting car, but Pat made her way over to the barriers, shook a few hands, and took some flowers before getting in the car with her husband. The road into their gated community in San Clemente was also lined with well-wishers. The Nixons kept a low profile through 1981 and into 1982, with Nixon only returning to the Governor’s Office at the end of January 1983, after nearly a year’s absence. Already a lame duck, Nixon only made the trip to Sacramento twice a week. Nixon was notably thinner and his face gaunt after his return.

Many immediately began to question what Nixon would do in his return to retirement. Some believed that his retirement would actually mean retirement for the statesman. Others, those closest to Nixon, knew why he wasn’t taking another term as Governor: he needed the time to rest before his next adventure.

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

May I just say: this is an excellent and creative timeline idea. Props to you man, fr! Can’t believe I’m saying this, nor would I ever say this in context outside of this timeline: Nixon ‘88!!!

[DKrol]

Part XI - Know the Constitution, Sir

Former Federal Judge Clement Haynsworth found himself at the center of Richard Nixon’s comeback

Richard Nixon received Joe Theismann and the Washington Redskin Super Bowl Championship team at La Casa Pacifica in early February, 1983. That was his only public appearance for several months. But just because he wasn’t in the public eye didn’t mean Nixon wasn’t at work. Rising every morning by 6 AM, the 69-year-old former President spent most the day in his home office. He read three morning papers and had the previous night’s Tonight Show recorded for him to watch in the morning. After a light breakfast of toast and coffee, Nixon would spend a few hours answering correspondences and making calls to friends, family, and allies. He’d usually have a former staffer or current lawmaker as a guest at lunch, where they would discuss the news of the day and Nixon’s opinions on it. Beginning in March of 1983, the evenings were when Nixon began to take the next steps of his comeback.

Each evening, a team of long-time Nixon aids and supporters gathered in what became known as “The Situation Room”, an Eastern extension of La Casa Pacifica that was built while the Nixons were in New York. Chief among them was former Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Clement Haynsworth, whom Nixon attempted to place on the Supreme Court in 1969. After leaving the federal bench in 1980, Haynsworth moved to San Diego and became a constant friend and confident of Nixon, providing legal opinion several times during his governorship. Also included in the A-Team where former White House Counsel Leonard Garment, former Executive Director of the Wallace-LeMay 1968 campaign Tom Turnipseed, and former FCC Chairman Dean Burch. The meetings were listed on Nixon’s schedule as a “Policy Working Group” but, when the guest list was published in a leak to the New York Times in July 1983 many began to speculate that Nixon’s health had recovered enough for a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1986. Nixon had bigger plans in mind.

President Kennedy, although beleaguered by a weakened economy, announced he was running for re-election in September 1983. A week earlier, Texas Senator George H.W. Bush had announced his intention to run for office, and before the end of 1983 the Republican field would be rounded out with Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, Kansas Senator Bob Dole, Missouri Senator John Danforth, and Reverend Jerry Falwell. Kennedy faced a centrist challenge from now-perennial candidate former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. Kennedy easily dismissed Carter after two blow out victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In the Republican primary, the leader fluctuated between Bush, Dole, and Danforth over the early months. Falwell captured the fervor of the religious right that Ronald Reagan had championed over his career and maintained a solid 15%-20% of the primary voters. In Iowa, Dole squeaked out a victory with 27%, compared to Bush’s 25% and Danforth’s 22%. New Hampshire propelled Bush, where he claimed 34% of the vote. Danforth found his first win in Maine, meaning that the first three primaries were won by three different candidates. Some at the RNC Headquarters were worried that a drawn-out primary would harm their odds at beating the seemingly weak Kennedy. Luckily, Richard Nixon had been watching from California.

Support from Richard Nixon buoyed Bob Dole’s campaign

Nixon had long been a friend of Bob Dole after the two met in 1968 while Dole was running for the Senate. Nixon strongly admired Dole’s commitment to public service through his life, especially his double Purple Heart-winning actions in World War II. From early on in the 1984 race, Nixon told friends he prefered Dole. After seeing the tight race develop in the early contests, Nixon decided to enter the fray and make his first public appearance in a year on March 12. At a rally in Miami, Nixon endorsed Dole in front of a ravenous crowd on the eve of the Florida Primary. Nixon painted Dole as the only candidate “with the wealth of experience and service needed to capably serve” as President.

With Nixon’s endorsement, and the ensuing financial support he brought, Dole continued on in the race and was able to fend off challenger after challenger, as each candidate rose up and attempted to be the Anyone But Dole choice. In mid-May, Dole was declared the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Talk then turned to his Vice Presidential nominee. Bush and Danforth were the immediately obvious choices and received most of the media coverage. One article in the Washington Post mentioned Nixon’s name being circulated by party insiders but it was lost in a larger media cycle. At the Dallas-based 1984 Convention, Dole proved the Washington Post correct and shocked the world when he submitted the name of the 37th President as his choice for Vice President.

While the Convention delegates strongly supported Nixon’s nomination, Democrats exploded in anger. Many feared the implications of having the popular elder statesman Nixon on the opposing ticket but others challenged the legality of Nixon’s selection. DNC Counsel Hillary Rodham Clinton contested that Nixon, under the 25th Amendment, was ineligible to serve as Vice President, meaning that any electoral votes cast for him would be invalid. Nixon, obviously, was prepared for this challenge. While Haynsworth developed a legal strategy to fight the charge if and when it made it the courts, Dole and Nixon had a political strategy ready. They made an aggressive media push portraying Nixon as a public servant dedicated to helping his country and “answering the call to serve.” Early polls showed around 43% of people supported the choice of Nixon, while 36% opposed it, and 21% were undecided.

The choice of Nixon became the major issue of the 1984 campaign for Democrats. Kennedy and his running mate, Vice President Gary Hart, attacked Dole as a pawn of Nixon and argued that electing Dole would be giving Nixon a third term. Attacks based on Watergate proved ineffective as Nixon had massively rehabbed his public image over the decade since he left office. Dole/Nixon attacked Kennedy as “running on his name, not his record” while also attacking Kennedy as lacking a serious record, alleging that he had done little in his term in office. Fairly, Kennedy had lost battles with a more-conservative-leaning Congress over healthcare and education reform but had passed a progressive tax reform package before the 1982 midterms.

In September, the Kennedy/Hart campaign suffered a major setback: Donna Rice. Rice alleged that she and the Vice President had been engaged in an extramarital affair for several years, including while he was in office as Prime Minister. Republicans attacked Hart as an unsafe choice for Vice President, arguing his loose morals put national security at risk; this was corroborated by Rice when she showed newsmen a private schedule for Kennedy that she said she took from Hart’s desk when he told her they had to end their affair in 1983. Hart tried to deny the charge but was forced off the Democratic ticket on October 2, 1984. Prior to Hart’s departure, the bookies gave the Democrats a 65% chance to win. After, it dropped to 45%.

The Nixon-Stennis Debate was not a repeat of the Kennedy-Nixon debate

Kennedy chose Senate President Pro Tempore John C. Stennis as Hart’s replacement, which drew  much criticism for Stennis’ long history of supporting segregation. The Kennedy/Stennis campaign tried to counter the narrative by pointing out that Stennis voted for the 1982 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act but the Republicans used it as a main attack point in the final month of the campaign. Nixon and Stennis met for a single debate a week after Stennis was named to the Democratic ticket. Stennis, 83, appeared weak, frail, and tired next to the well rested and energized Nixon. There were no political sparks in the debate, as Nixon and Stennis were long-time personal friends, but the image of the hunched Stennis next to the tanned and dapper Nixon set the tone.

The Kennedy-Dole debates were also uninspiring for many. Kennedy trained his fire on Nixon, while Dole, referring to himself in the third person, lauded his military service and bipartisan success in three Senate terms. Both men looked good and voters saw little difference between them. When Election Day came, everyone was bracing themselves for a close election that went on into the night. Would the Kennedy-weary Southern Democrats vote for Republicans for the first time? Could Nixon bring California into the Republican fold? How would the impending legal challenge to any electoral votes for Nixon play out? Shortly after 1 AM EST, Tom Brokaw and NBC News called the race.

Dole/Nixon (R) - 288 v. Kennedy/Stennis (D) - 250

[Cold War Liberal]

I love all of this. The engaging writing, Hart collapsing and taking my least favorite Kennedy brother with him, Nixon using a constitutional loophole to gain the presidency (I assume that's to come), that you made it very clear that Bob Dole referred to Bob Dole in the third person at the debate. I. Love. All. Of. It.

[DKrol]

I love all of this. The engaging writing, Hart collapsing and taking my least favorite Kennedy brother with him, Nixon using a constitutional loophole to gain the presidency (I assume that's to come), that you made it very clear that Bob Dole referred to Bob Dole in the third person at the debate. I. Love. All. Of. It.

Thank you! I'm very glad you're enjoying it!

[DKrol]

Part XII - HRC v. RMN

DNC Chief Counsel Hillary Rodham Clinton led the charge against Nixon’s bid to become Vice President

The Supreme Court in 1984 had been shaped by 12 years of Republican Presidents, and a further 6 years of a conservative Democrat in the Oval Office. Warren Burger was in his 15th year as Chief Justice. Although appointed by Nixon, senior justice Harry Blackmun had become a reliable liberal Justice, along with Johnson-appointed Justice Thurgood Marshall and Eisenhower-appointed William J. Brennan. Nixon’s other appointees, Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist were committed conservatives, as was Ford’s only Supreme Court nominee, Dallin Oaks. Ted Kennedy only named one justice to the bench, Gilbert S. Merritt, who had quickly distanced himself from the liberal Kennedy and made friends with the Burger-Powell-Rehnquist group. That left John Kennedy-appointed Byron White as the swing vote on the Court. It was these men who would decide the fate of the 1984 election.

On November 7, 1984, the day after Bob Dole and Richard Nixon won the election in what ended up being a Republican wave down the ballot (Republicans won 236 seats in the House and held a 55-45 majority in the Senate), Hillary Rodham Clinton filed suit in the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of the Democratic National Committee challenging Nixon’s eligibility to receive electoral votes. Her argument was that, since Nixon was ineligible to be elected President under the 22nd Amendment, he was ineligible to serve as Vice President under the 12th Amendment, which says that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” Clement Haynsworth, now named Chief Counsel of the Dole-Nixon Transition Project, had prepared a response to this line of attack.

As Haynsworth argued in court, the 22nd Amendment is concerned only with the election of a President, not one’s eligibility to serve as President. This meant that the 22nd Amendment was “inapplicable” in the case in the question. Attention then turned to the 12th Amendment. Haynsworth, a passionate orator, highlight the “constitutionally ineligible to the office of President” line of the amendment. Flipping his pocket Constitution to Article Two, Haynsworth read out Section 1, Clause 5: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” As Haynsworth went on to argue, it was a known fact that Nixon met those requirements since he had already been elected and inaugurated as President twice.

The Court of Appeals sided with Haynsworth and upheld Nixon’s ability to receive electoral votes. Within hours, Rodham Clinton and the DNC had filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. Clinton hoped that the plethora of Nixon-appointed Justices, 4 in total, would recuse themselves. That would leave Marshall, Brennan, Oaks, Merritt, and White as the only Justices to hear the case. Two liberals, two conservatives, and a swing vote. Nixon’s main ally in the Senate, Barry Goldwater, held a secret lunch with Burger, Powell, Rehnquist, and Blackmun to ask them not to recuse themselves for the upcoming case. Goldwater, prompted by Haynsworth, argued that Supreme Court Justices hear cases involving the governments that appointed them all the time and that this was no different. Powell and Rehnquist were open to the idea but pressure from Burger and Blackmun, in the end, led all four to recuse themselves from the case.

78 year-old Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. acted as Chief Justice during the Clinton v. Nixon trial

The five-Justice Supreme Court convened on December 3 to begin hearing oral arguments from Rodham Clinton and Haynsworth. White, known for his intense grilling of attorneys, berated Clinton for nearly an hour over the difference between serving and being elected and asked if Nixon had been elected President in 1984. Justice Oaks moved to dismiss the case after Rodham Clinton’s presentation, arguing that it lacked “the basic legal understanding needed to” appear before the Court. The Justices voted 3-2 to maintain the case. Haynsworth, put off by the recusal of the Nixon-appointed Justices, had a far flatter performance before the Supreme Court than he had before the Appeals Court. Nixon, who sat in the gallery during Haynsworth’s argument, told friends he was not sure how the reduced Court would vote after Justice White gave him a thorough wringing out after Haynsworth misspoke and referenced the 25th Amendment when he meant the 22nd. The Justices withdrew to their chambers on December 11 for deliberations.

On December 17, the Electors met in Washington and cast their votes. Bob Dole received the 288 he won, and Kennedy got his 250. Stennis received 247, with three Northern Democrat electors refusing to vote for the Southern Segregationist Senator. Vice President Gary Hart instead received those Northern votes. Some Republican Electors were uneasy about casting their votes for Nixon with the Supreme Court still arguing the case. After some intense pressuring from Nixon allies, 284 Republican electors cast their ballots for Nixon. The remaining voters scattered their votes among George H.W. Bush, John Danforth, John Stennis, and Bill Brock. Then Nixon just had to wait to hear back from the elusive five Justices to learn if he’d accomplished the impossible and made the greatest comeback in history.

After an extended period of discussion, the Supreme Court reconvened on Wednesday, December 19 to deliver its opinion in Hillary Rodham Clinton et al v. Richard Milhous Nixon. No one was surprised when it was Justice White who began to read the majority opinion; everyone expected him to be the deciding vote and be honored with writing the opinion. In a 3-2 decision, White, Oaks, and Merritt argued that Nixon met the Constitutionally defined requirements to serve as President and his election as Vice President circumvented the effects of the 22nd Amendment. Marshall and Brennan, in the minority, argued that Nixon’s election as Vice President “directly contradicted the intent” of the 22nd Amendment but admitted that it did not violate the text of either the 22nd or the 12th Amendments.

Shortly before Noon on January 20th, 1985, Associate Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath of office to Richard Milhous Nixon. Minutes later, Chief Justice Warren Burger did the same to Robert Joseph Dole, becoming the 40th President of the United States of America. In an inaugural address, delivered the following day inside the Capitol Rotunda due to cold weather, the new President proudly stated “Bob Dole is a champion for the working class man because he knows and believes in the boundless optimism of the American people.” After the address and ceremony, Dole and Nixon attended a luncheon held in their honor by the Congressional Leadership. Halfway through the lunch, Dole leaned over to Nixon and told him “I don’t feel quite right.” Nixon, although concerned, believed it was just stress, anxiety, and excitement and urged Dole to “Have a drink, to settle the nerves.”

Within the hour, the Secret Service had quietly whisked the new President to Walter Reed Army Medical Center after continued complaints of chest pains.

[America Needs R'hllor]

This is really great. I do wonder what happens if something tragic were to occur with the President...

Edit: Holy... this just took a sinister turn Awesome!

[BenBurch]

Don't let him die!  PLEASE!

[erſatz-york]

I have never seen a Bob Dole presidency explored in any alternate history. Please don’t kill him.

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

It’d be littt if Dole was President for a term, and then Nixon became President and led us through Desert Storm and such. But oh no

[Independents for Nihilism]

Now what did Nixon put in that drink... Great stuff, eager for more!

[DKrol]

Part XIII - Mr. Acting President

President Dole’s health became an immediate concern

On January 22, White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes announced that President Dole had suffered a mild heart attack at some point between delivering his inaugural address and attending the Congressional luncheon. White House Doctor T. Burton Smith described the heart attack as “notably mild” and probably caused by complications from a new medication Dole had begun taking due to a recent infection from his war-wounded arm. Dr. Smith predicted that Dole would make a full recovery but would need to spend “three to five weeks” on mandatory bed rest followed by six or seven weeks of non-bedridden rest to avoid any risk of triggering a second, likely more violent, heart attack. Later that day, Vice President Nixon convened the cabinet, largely comprised of bureaucratic career under secretaries at the time, and invoked the 25th Amendment to name Nixon the first Acting President in American history. Speakes released a statement from Dole confirming his support for the decision.

Nixon’s first action as Acting President was to finish the cabinet nomination process. Dole had already named General Alexander Haig as Secretary of Defense. That left a lot of room for Nixon to place his touches on the cabinet: Caspar Weinberger, a former Nixon official, was appointed Treasury Secretary, Ronald Reagan, long-time political ally of Nixon, as Secretary of State, Clement Haynsworth, Nixon’s legal mastermind, as Attorney General, and Frank Carlucci, another former Nixon official, as Secretary of Labor. Many in the press noted the cabinet had a Nixon-heavy skew and that, had Dole been actively involved in the process, it was unlikely the same people would have been chosen. Thanks to the Republicans’ large majorities in both chambers, especially the Senate, none of Nixon’s nominees faced great scrutiny.

Even greater fortune fell into Nixon’s lap on February 12, 1985. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, whom Nixon had appointed in 1969, announced his intentions to retire at the end of the current term. Jumping at the opportunity, Nixon named Burger’s successor, Associate Justice William Rehnquist, on February 18. To replace Rehnquist, Nixon tapped his long-time ally Robert Bork. Rehnquist’s nomination drew no controversy, he was a widely respected jurist who was confirmed as Chief Justice on an 82-8 vote in the middle of March. It was Bork, however, that drew far more controversy.

The nomination of Robert Bork took up much of Nixon’s time as Acting President

Within hours of Bork’s nomination being announced, pundits and Democrats attacked it as favoritism on the part of Nixon, with a rumor circulating that Nixon had promised Bork a Supreme Court seat in 1973. Nixon denied that charge and maintained that Bork was a brilliant legal mind and a strong defender of the Constitution. Senator Joe Biden, the Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, took up the cause of opposing Bork as the hill he was willing to die on. With support from the NAACP, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood, Biden launched a massive anti-Bork media campaign, including a multi-million dollar TV ad blitz narrated by Gregory Peck.

Attorney General Haynsworth and Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker championed the Bork nomination in the Senate. A group of liberal Republicans, led by Robert Stafford of Vermont and John Chafee of Rhode Island, agreed with Biden and expressed their stiff opposition to the nomination. Haynsworth and Baker attempted to strong arm the “radical liberal bastards”, as Nixon called them in his diary, but that only emboldened them. On the eve of the vote of the full Senate, Haynsworth reported to Nixon that he was not sure how the vote would go. In a frustrated fury, Nixon summoned the liberal Republicans to the White House before the vote to work out a deal. Nixon agreed to let three Senators vote against the nomination, enough to make a symbolic statement, he argued, in exchange for the remaining three voting in favor. With the support of Democrat John Stennis, this would be enough to comfortably confirm Bork. Chafee refused to commit to the deal in person, leaving the White House without giving Nixon a firm answer.

The cabinet returned the powers of the Presidency to Bob Dole on April 8. On April 9, the Senate voted 53-47 to confirm Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

[DKrol]

Part XIV - Troubles Abroad, Troubles at Home

The El Descanso attack forced Dole’s attention abroad

Days after resuming the Presidency, Bob Dole was planning to announce a massive spending package to combat what he termed “a booming drug crisis”. The plan set aside nearly $2 billion to hire new federal agents to combat the sale and use of drugs, as well as imposing stringent penalties for repeated drug users. White House insiders believed that it was largely influenced by Nixon’s career-long “law and order” rhetoric. Unfortunately, the rollout of the “Saving America’s Youth Agenda”, as it was to be called, wasn’t rolled out in 1985. Or 1986.

The morning that Dole was planning on announcing SAYA, he and Nixon were ushered into the Situation Room. Overnight, a series of bombs were detonated at the American Torrejon Air Base in Madrid. The bombs breached the walls of the base, allowing a group of 25 members of the Islamic Jihad Organization to flood into the base and take 45 Americans and 17 Spaniards hostage at gunpoint. Early reports indicated that 14 Americans had been killed in the initial hostage taking and another five had been killed in the hostage-taking process. This was the first national security test for the Dole/Nixon Administration and would set the tone for the rest of their term together.

Nixon immediately proposed calling Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, French President Francois Mitterrand, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and relying on a Pan-European task force to negotiate the Americans release. Nixon argued that the effort to place an American team on the ground would be too great and the delay in timing could put the hostages in danger. Speed, Nixon argued, would be the key to success. National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger estimated that the Pan-European team could be assembled and in place in less than two hours, while assembling and locating an American team could take upwards of five.

Dole did not like the idea of sending a group of Europeans to save American lives. Normally a fervent internationalist, Dole was worried about the the image it would send, as he turned to Europeans to save the day in his first international crisis. Supported by Secretary of Defense Al Haig, Dole gave the orders for an American hostage negotiation team to be airlifted from Camp Darby, in Italy, to Madrid. Nixon and Secretary of State Ronald Reagan protested the decision strongly, but Dole held strong. By the time the American team arrived in Spain, the hostage-takers had grown impatient and shot five more Americans. When negotiations began to break down, the hostage-takers killed the first Spaniard. Prime Minister Gonzalez ordered his soldiers, who were on-site but not actively involved, to storm the base and end the crisis as the Americans stood to the side and watched.

President Dole’s annus horribilis continued on the home front

Dole received a tremendous amount of criticism from the press and the public for his choice in the El Descanso attack. In public, Nixon put on a face and toed the White House line but, in private, he slandered Dole and Haig to anyone who would listen. Through backchannels, Nixon leaked to the press the divisions among the cabinet during the El Descanso meeting. After two months, the criticism largely died down, save for the most liberal of news commentators or politicians, but Nixon’s anger still bubbled up.

Eight months after the attack, in December, another crisis emerged for Dole. Civil Rights leader Al Sharpton, hailed by some as the new Martin Luther King, Jr., had announced plans for a nation-wide strike for nursing home workers, after reports of understaffing and overwork became widespread. Dole, who spent several years over decades in nursing homes recovering from surgeries and wounds, extended an offer to meet with Sharpton. Sharpton accepted the offer but deferred on the date until after a planned unity march in Los Angeles on December 6.

That meeting never ended up happening. As Sharpton led about a thousand nursing home workers, mostly African Americans, down Sunset Boulevard, a man rushed from the crowd on the sidewalk. He grabbed Sharpton by the shoulder, turned him around, and fired two shots from a small revolver into his chest at point-blank range. Panic broke out across the crowd as a mob of white nationalists descended on the crowd and started punching and kicking the marchers. David Duke, Grand Wizard of the KKK, put out a statement applauding the attackers “for taking steps to restore the rule of law and order on our streets” and end the march.

Duke, at the time, was running for the State Senate in Louisiana as a Republican. Two days after the attack, Dole was asked at a press conference what his thoughts on Duke running for office were. Dole demurred, saying “It’s not fitting to comment on” it. He was pressed but held firm that he wouldn’t “be commenting on the candidacy of a man in a state senate race in Louisiana.” The nation went up in flames after the press conference. Riots, led by young African American men, broke out in New York, Detroit, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Businesses were shuttered, cars were destroyed, and six people, two white, four black, were killed across the nation over a week of riots. The National Guard was ultimately sent in in full riot-control gear to several persistant hotspots, injuring thousands and arresting hundred across the country.

Dole was attacked, first for spurring the riots by not condemning Duke and, second, for authorizing a very strong response to the riots after they started. Dole tried to backstep, saying that he “personally would never support” Duke, but it did little to shut down his critics. He held firm on his decision to send in the National Guard by arguing that “the need for law and order required it.” This only inflamed people more, as Duke had used the phrase law and order in his statement after the attack. Almost every morning in 1985, Nixon woke up, read the papers, and shook his head in disbelief before convening his Crisis Council, a top-level team of spin doctors, media figures, and political operatives, to find a way through the day’s crisis.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I can't believe Nixon was able to lie and cheat his way back into the White House. I'm glad Hillary was featured in the story to try and stop him. Wish she had succeeded!! Can't wait for more