University of Virginia Library

The New Agnew

Three years ago, if Vice President Spiro T.
Agnew had appeared before a college
audience, he would have been bombarded
with catcalls, boos, hisses, revolutionary
rhetoric, and even perhaps red paint, and he
would probably have been unable to get a
word in edgewise amongst the uproar. Such,
then, was the temper of the nation and the
temperament of Mr. Agnew. A clash was
nearly always unavoidable since Mr. Agnew
instinctively returned shouts of derision and
meers with those of his own.

Last night it was a different man who
came to Charlottesville. With his ogre's mask
safely hidden from sight, he kept his audience
as well as himself remarkably composed and
attentive. Those of us who came anticipating
a prize fight left a bit disappointed. The usual
knock-out punch
or death blow
indicative of past
exchanges was
notably absent.
Rather, the
contest last night
in University Hall
seemed more a
game of
dodgeball on
both sides. The
Vice-President
successfully
side-stepped
much of the
barbed
questioning with
subdued replies, possibly catching a bemused
audience a bit off-guard. Thus, for the
audience, there was not the usual bully with
whom to pick a fight.

Indeed, this was the "new Agnew" we
saw. Yet it was an image that had changed
rather than the issues. There still emerged in
his remarks that inherent distaste for a critical
press who, at least in the case of the
Watergate, in his opinion involved itself in
"double hearsay," "undisclosed sources" and
"character assassination." Much of the
exposure, he claimed, was solely
"self-adulating" and constituted something
similar, to the McCarthy hearings.

It almost seems unnecessary to have to
point out, as one member of the audience did,
the fact that the Watergate affair would never
have been fully exposed had it not been for
the tireless efforts of an investigative press. Of
course, Mr. Agnew found few in the audience
who agreed with him, but his remarks here
were more in the form of observation that the
usual accusation.

Mr. Agnew himself admitted that his "new
image" involved getting away from "this
business of irritating each other." Certainly
the Agnew approach last night was an
example of this. His manner this time seemed
to be one of a public servant patiently
answering questions from inquisitive,
sometimes inquisitorial questioners. His
answers were now more of the "team man"
variety, obviously not wishing to stray from
or contradict the views of his Chief Executive.

It is apparent, more than ever before, that
Mr. Agnew is a mere passenger, with his
President firmly
entrenched in the
driver's seat.
There will be no
more John Deans
in the White
House to further
blemish the
administration's
complexion, and
Mr. Agnew is
aware as never
before that a loud
mouth is the first
to be made the
scape-goat. He is
determined to be
the President's
man, but not at the price of diverting that
hostility upon himself. By remaining "clean"
he can help the President, but moreover his
approach can only and is bound to help
himself.

Mr. Agnew has opted for the statesman's
role rather than that of the political in-fighter,
which has earned him the unflattering
"hatchet-man" image that he so recently has
been trying to shake. With this ploy, Mr.
Agnew has preserved his own proverbial neck,
no matter how the cards may fall in Nixon's
collapsing house. As a member of the
Administration, he is in an enviable position:
if the taint from Watergate reaches the
President's doorstep, Mr. Agnew will be
remembered for having been trustful of the
President's integrity, his policies and his
office, a trust necessary for the success of the
democratic process.

His new image and his tactics seemed to
have worked on the audience, too, just as he
hoped they would. While no one left
University Hall last night completely satisfied
with his responses to the burning questions
which they still harbored inside; at the same
time he did not berate the questioners as he
has in the past.

In this sense, Mr. Agnew's visit was a
disappointment, because we came expecting
to be outraged by his rhetoric. Yet, since he
did not oblige, we are somehow encouraged.
From the battlefields of Washington Mr.
Agnew came as a peacemaker, calmly fending
off the barrage of criticism and attempting to
shore up the Administration's sagging
reputation. Here, he was not entirely
successful, but in the attempt he certainly
elevated his own.