G. Harrold Carswell: representing the mediocre

(Source: Donn Dughi, Florida Memory)

When George Harrold Carswell's name was first put forward for a seat on the United States Supreme Court, some newspapers commented that his confirmation was all but assured. For one thing, he had no stocks or bonds at a time when financial conflicts of interest were affecting the high court. His decisions had not endeared him to labor groups, but observers considered their opposition to be little more than token.

The factor most in favor of Carswell's nomination, however, was the fact that the path had already been cleared for him. The Senate had already rejected President Richard Nixon's first nominee for the Supreme Court, and the chamber had not rejected a President's nominees twice in a row in 76 years. There was a perception that doing so would weaken the relationship between the President and Senate Republicans, and that it would delay decisions on important matters by leaving the Supreme Court deadlocked.

Carswell had already been confirmed by the Senate to three federal judicial posts over the course of his career. He had passed background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on each these occasions. And he perfectly fit the profile for Nixon's ideal nominee: a Southern judge with a constructionist view toward the Constitution, or interpretation that the founding document limited the role of the government.

When he learned of the nominee's credentials, Attorney General John N. Mitchell enthusiastically recommended Carswell to Nixon. The judge, he declared, was to be "too good to be true." The statement was more accurate than he realized.

Carswell was born on December 22, 1919, in Irwinton, Georgia. His father, George Henry Carswell, served for 30 years as a state legislator. The elder Carswell was also secretary of state at one point and twice ran unsuccessfully in Georgia's gubernatorial elections. Carswell earned a bachelor of arts degree from Duke University in 1941 before attending the University of Georgia Law School, but suspended his studies to join the Naval Reserve after the United States entered World War II. He sailed in the Pacific aboard the heavy cruiser Baltimore and attended several universities as part of his officer training, including six months of postgraduate work at the U.S. Naval Academy. When the war ended in 1945, Carswell left the service with the rank of lieutenant.

Resuming his studies, Carswell earned a bachelor of law degree from Mercer University and graduated from the Walter F. George School of Law in 1948. He immediately started a private practice, then sought to follow in his father's footsteps by running as a Democrat for the Georgia legislature. After this bid failed, he moved his practice to Tallahassee, Florida.

Prior to the 1952 election, Carswell sought to persuade his fellow Democrats in Florida to vote for the Republican candidate, Dwight D. Eisenhower. He soon switched his allegiance to the Republican Party. After he was elected, Eisenhower rewarded Carswell by appointing him U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Carswell held this post until March of 1958, when Eisenhower nominated him for a seat on the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Florida. The Senate confirmed the appointment, and Carswell began serving the role the next month. He was only 33 years old, the youngest federal attorney in the country at the time. In 1969, Nixon nominated Carswell for a new seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, located in New Orleans. He was confirmed by the Senate in June.

Carswell began his new job at the same time that the Supreme Court was going through an upheaval. Justice Abe Fortas of the Supreme Court had resigned in May of 1969 after it was discovered that he had a connection to a discredited financier. Fortas had agreed to perform services for the family foundation of Louis E. Wolfson, who had been convicted of stock manipulation.

Nixon's first choice to fill the vacancy left by Fortas' departure was Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. The conservative Democrat and South Carolina judge had been serving on the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Senators were concerned that Haynsworth had exhibited a conflict of interest in several cases where he owned stock in companies appearing before the court. Labor and civil rights groups added their voices to the opposition, saying Haynsworth had been biased against them in his decisions. On November 21, 1969, the Senate rejected the nominee with 55 senators opposed and 45 in favor; 17 of the 43 Republicans in the Senate broke ranks to vote down the President's first choice.

Unrepentant, Nixon blamed the defeat on an "anti-Southern, anti-conservative, and anti-strict constructionist" prejudice in the Senate, even though some constructionists had joined the opposition. He ordered an aide, Harry S. Dent, to "find a good federal judge farther to the South and further to the right." Carswell fit the bill, and Nixon put his name forward on January 19, 1970.

When the nomination went before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Carswell's attitude toward racial relations became an immediate point of concern. He had a distinctly mixed record on civil rights, applying Supreme Court decisions to his own district but showing less concern for equality if these precedents did not apply. In one case, he had ruled against his own barber in favor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, saying the shop could not deny service to black customers. He had also decided that the Tallahassee city commissioners could not make distinctions based on race in their decisions, and Yale professor James W. Moore credited Carswell with making the University of Florida Law School free of discrimination. However, he had also dismissed cases that sought to force a theater to sell tickets to black moviegoers and reopen swimming pools closed by a "wade-in" protest. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, charging him with a bias against blacks making civil rights claims, had formally opposed Carswell's promotion to the Court of Appeals.

Representatives of civil rights groups expressed their concerns before the committee. They painted Carswell as a judge who was openly hostile to civil rights claims and any Northern lawyers representing them, saying he had shouted at black lawyers while acting cordial toward white ones, delayed civil rights cases without cause, and even turned his back on civil rights lawyers in the midst of their arguments. Rutgers University law professor John Lowenthal said Carswell was "extremely hostile" to a 1963 habeas corpus petition to free seven people charged with criminal trespass for urging black citizens to vote. He said Carswell had eventually granted the petition but refused to let the court marshal serve the release order, forcing Lowenthal to deliver it to the sheriff. LeRoy D. Clark, a New York University Law School professor who represented the National Conference of Black Lawyers in his appearance before the committee, declared Carswell to be "the most hostile federal district judge I've ever appeared before with respect to civil rights matters."

Statements that Carswell made in his 1948 legislative campaign raised the question of whether Carswell was being blatantly racist in this behavior. In a speech, he had endorsed segregation as "the only practical and correct way of life in our states" and further declared that he was committed to a "firm, vigorous belief in the principles of white supremacy." Surprisingly, these statements proved only a minor hurdle. Carswell denounced his former statements as "obnoxious and abhorrent to my personal philosophy" and said he had lost the race in part because he was considered too liberal in spite of such declarations. His supporters said Carswell shouldn't be judged for statements he had made 22 years before the confirmation hearings.

Carswell's record showed a high rate of reversal when it came to his decisions, especially on civil rights. A study by students at the Columbia University Law School found that 58 percent of his decisions had been overturned on appeal. Among all federal jurists, Carswell had the eighth most cases reversed by appellate courts. Supporters dismissed this finding, arguing that Carswell considered civil rights cases fairly and that the reversals came about after the high courts set precedents for the speed required in integration.

Senators opposed to Carswell also questioned whether his record qualified him for the highest judicial post in the country. At the time of his nomination, he had only been on the Circuit Court for six months. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat, described Carswell's judicial record as "utterly pedestrian" and said that Nixon should have recommended a nominee that could meet a standard of "singular excellence." Louis Pollack, the dean of the Yale University Law School, also dealt a blow to Carswell by describing him as having "more slender credentials than any nominee for the Supreme Court put forth this century."

Despite these shortcomings, the Judiciary Committee delivered a 13-4 decision on February 16 to send the nomination to the Senate with a recommendation that Carswell be approved. The committee's majority report concluded that his record on civil rights showed him to be even-handed. Carswell's opponents were outraged. Clarence Mitchell, director of the NAACP's office in Washington, said the decision was "a kick in the teeth of those of us who have sought to quell the fires of racism among Negroes in the United States." Senator Birch Bayh Jr., an Indiana Democrat, warned that Carswell's nomination would "encourage violent extremists." Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota, who would go on to face Nixon as the Democratic candidate in the 1972 presidential election, said of Carswell, "I find his record to be distinguished largely by two qualities: racism and mediocrity."

The opponents had taken a strategy of delaying the nomination process to allow more thorough vetting of Carswell to take place. After the Judiciary Committee's nomination, they won some extra time due to lengthy debates over amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1970. It was enough to bring up more concerns regarding Carswell's character.

Additional racial issues surfaced. While acting as U.S. Attorney in 1956, Carswell had taken part in the transfer of a public golf club in Tallahassee—which had received $35,000 in federal funds for its construction—to a private organization that barred black members. It was a rather transparent effort to skirt desegregation. Carswell had also signed papers incorporating a "whites only" boosters club for the Florida State University football team and sold property in 1966 with a restrictive covenant forbidding a sale to a black buyer. One paper found that in a speech to the Georgia Bar Association only two months before the nomination, Carswell had opened by saying, "I was out in the Far East a little while ago, and I ran into a dark-skinned fella. I asked him if he was from Indochina and he said, 'Naw, suh, I'se from outdo' Gawgee.'"

Carswell won significant support from his fellow judges, but it was not unanimous. Only eleven of the 15 judges on the Court of Appeals expressed their support in March. A month later, 50 of the 58 active federal district judges in the Fifth Circuit supported him. Meanwhile, thousands of lawyers and hundreds of law professors sent letters to the Senate saying they did not think Carswell was qualified for the high court. One public statement, signed by 350 practicing lawyers and law school professors, said he did "not have the legal or mental qualifications essential for service on the Supreme Court." Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg admitted that he considered Carswell unfit for the post.

Some of Carswell's supporters also blundered in their embarrassing defense of the nominee. Speaking to reporters about Carswell's record, Republican Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska sought to justify what detractors were calling a lackluster record. "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers," Hruska said. "They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't all have Brandeises and Frankfurters and Cardozos and stuff like that there."

Senator Russell Long, a Louisiana Democrat, also advocated for Carswell in a backhanded way, saying the Supreme Court already had enough "upside-down, corkscrew thinkers." He asked, "Would it not appear that it might be well to take a B or a C student who was able to think straight, compared to one of those A students who are capable of the kind of thinking that winds up getting us a 100 percent increase in crime in this country?"

When the vote went before the full Senate on April 8, Carswell proved to be more popular than Haynsworth. However, he did not get enough support for approval. The final tally was 51 against the nominee and 45 in favor; 13 Republicans had joined 38 Democrats in the opposition. For the first time since Grover Cleveland's second term, a President's Supreme Court nominees had been rebuffed by the Senate twice in a row.

Nixon again blamed the rejection on regional bias, commenting that he didn't think the Senate would approve any Constitutional constructionist from the South. Carswell and Haynsworth had both endured "vicious assaults on their honesty and their character," he said, and he would not nominate another Southerner if it would submit him to "the kind of malicious character assassination accorded to both Judges Haynsworth and Carswell."

Critics condemned the remarks as inaccurate and indicative of Nixon's own biases. Bayh said Nixon's determination to get a Southerner in the Supreme Court was "the most damning evidence of a Southern Strategy that we've had," referencing the President's appeasing the pro-segregation groups in the South to help him win the 1968 election. Some Southern senators who had voted against Carswell also disputed Nixon's accusation, saying he could have found better constructionist nominees from the South. Nixon would subsequently nominate Harry Blackmun, a Minnesota judge on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; he would be approved unanimously in May.

Less than two weeks after Carswell was turned down, he made a surprising decision. Though he had lifetime tenure on the Court of Appeals, he resigned on April 20 to pursue a Senate bid in the 1970 election. He had agreed to do so at the urging of Florida's Republican governor, Claude Kirk, who hoped he would take the place of retiring Democratic Senator Spessard L. Holland. Carswell said he would support Nixon's policies, agree to a withdrawal of troops from Vietnam if an "honorable settlement" could be reached, and advocate for "common sense and conservative approaches to problems of education, crime control, and fiscal matters." He also had an ax to grind with the chamber that had rejected him, saying the Senate needed "more deliberation and less ultra-liberalism."

The effort was for naught. Representative William C. Cramer defeated Carswell by a nearly two-to-one margin in the Republican primary, earning 220,553 votes to Carswell's 121,281. Cramer would ultimately lose to Lawton Chiles, the Democratic candidate whose campaign had included a lengthy hike through Florida to meet with residents across the state. Carswell resumed work as a private attorney.

Later in the 1970s, two incidents emerged suggesting that Carswell was a closeted homosexual. The first occurred in Florida in June of 1976, after vice officers staked out a men's room in a Tallahassee shopping mall following complaints from merchants that homosexual liaisons were taking place there. After meeting with a male vice officer at the mall, Carswell drove him to a wooded area north of the city. He was promptly arrested on charges of battery and attempting a lewd and lascivious act.

Carswell was briefly hospitalized for a nervous condition after the incident. He allegedly told the officers, "I'd rather be dead than in the clutches of vice officers under such circumstances. I may just kill myself tonight. This is not true. You've got it all wrong." Four months later, he pleaded no contest to the battery charge and was fined $100.

The second incident occurred in September of 1979. After meeting a man in the skating rink of an Atlanta hotel, Carswell invited him up to his room. Carswell told police that he was then attacked and struck several times with a sharp object.

Carswell continued practicing law until his death, of lung cancer, on July 13, 1992.

Sources: Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, "Floridian Picked by Nixon for Post on Supreme Court" in the Daytona Beach Morning Journal on Jan. 19 1970, "Carswell Abides by High Court Rulings" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Jan. 20 1970, "Supreme Court Nominee Carswell Rejects White Supremacy Speech" in the Observer-Reporter on Jan. 22 1970, "Judge Carswell Deeply Rooted in Old South" in the Milwaukee Journal on Jan. 25 1970, "Carswell Hearings Recessed" in the Daily News on Jan. 29 1970, "Senate Panel Ends Hearing on Carswell" in the Toledo Blade on Feb. 3 1970, "Supreme Court Position Carswell Likely to Win" in the Rome News-Tribune on Feb. 8 1970, "Senate Judiciary Panel Approves Judge Carswell" in the Rome News-Tribune on Feb. 17 1970, "Carswell's Confirmation Looks Certain" in the Rome News-Tribune on Feb. 26 1970, "Goldberg Says Carswell Unfit for High Court Justice Post" in the Observer-Reporter on Mar. 23 1970, "High Court Takes a Beating in Talk About Mediocrity" in the Spokane Daily Chronicle on Mar. 25 1970, "Eleven Judges Support Carswell" in the Prescott Evening Courier on Mar. 29 1970, "Fifth Circuit Judges Back Carswell" in the Toledo Blade on April 5 1970, "Court Nominee Harrold Carswell Rejected by 51-45 Senate Vote" in The Bulletin on April 8 1970, "Nixon Charges Anti-South Bias" in the St. Petersburg Times on Apr. 10 1970, "Carswell Runs 'On Own Merit'" in the Evening Independent on Apr. 25 1970, "Harrold Carswell" in the St. Petersburg Times on Sep. 3 1970, "Faubus Loses Contest; Carswell Defeated" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Sep. 9 1970, "Carswell Returns to a Life of Private Law Practice" in the Ocala Star-Banner on Dec. 30 1970, "Carswell to Face Battery Charge, State Attorney Says" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jun. 29 1976, "Carswell Arrested on Morals Charge" in the Morning Record on Jul. 1 1976, "Carswell Reports Beating" in the Tuscaloosa News on Sept. 12 1979, "G. Harrold Carswell, High Court Nominee" in The Hour on Aug. 1 1992, "G. Harrold Carswell, 72, Rejected as Nixon's Nominee to High Court" in the Seattle Times on Aug. 1 1992, Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II by Henry J. Abraham, The Rehnquist Choice: The Untold Story of the Nixon Appointment that Redefined the Supreme Court by John W. Dean, Encyclopedia of the United States Congress by Robert E. Dewhirst

Earl L. Butz: just plane stupid joke

Credit: fordlibrarymuseum.gov

Earl Lauer Butz was not one to soften his abrasive speech when discussing the issues facing the Department of Agriculture. He brushed off criticism, hitting back at his foes with with disparaging put-downs or jokes. When women across the country organized protests and boycotts in response to a sudden spike in food prices, Butz commented that if they did not have “such a low level of economic intelligence,” they would understand that prices had gone up across the board and that “you can’t get more by paying less.” He was more abrupt on another occasion, saying the boycotts were a result of "stupid women and crazed housewives."

Butz's remarks did not get him in trouble until November of 1974. Pope Paul VI had expressed his opposition to the use of artificial birth control as a way of controlling population growth and helping to alleviate hunger. At a press conference, Butz responded to the papal position in part by putting on a faux Italian accent and saying, "He no play-a the game, he no make-a the rules." Realizing that he had gone too far, Butz quickly asked the reporters to consider the joke off the record. But since this request has to be made before a statement to be honored, the wisecrack was fair game for the morning papers.

Catholics and Italians were enraged that a Cabinet official would make such a mockery of the Pope. The Archdiocese of New York led a campaign demanding Butz's resignation unless he apologized for the "crude, pointed insult directed at Pope John Paul VI, spiritual leader of the world's Catholics." The outcry was enough for President Gerald Ford to call for a meeting with Butz to ascertain what had happened. He subsequently rebuked the Secretary of Agriculture and ordered him to make a formal apology.

The apology was enough to settle the matter. But two years later, the public would be reminded of Butz's propensity for crude humor when he made a joke so appalling that it ended his government career.

Butz was born near Albion, Indiana on July 3, 1909. He grew up working on the family farm before attending Purdue University, graduating in 1932. He returned to the farm for another year of work, then became a research fellow with the Federal Land Bank in Louisville, Kentucky. He went back to his studies soon after, earning Purdue's first doctorate in agricultural economics in 1937.

Most of Butz's life would be centered around the university. He joined Purdue's faculty and became the head of the agricultural economics department from 1946 to 1954. He left the school for three years to serve as assistant secretary of agriculture under President Dwight Eisenhower. He again returned to Purdue in 1957 to become the dean of the College of Agriculture, remaining there for another 10 years. Butz tried to make a return to politics in 1968 by seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Indiana, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he remained at Purdue as the dean of continuing education as well as the vice president of the Purdue Research Foundation.

Butz was already a controversial choice for a Cabinet post when President Richard Nixon nominated him to replace Clifford Hardin as Secretary of Agriculture, but it was not due to his off-color wit. Rather, a number of senators were disturbed by his unabashed connections to large agribusiness concerns. Butz served on the boards of a number of these corporations, and when it came to smaller farms his philosophy was that they needed to grow and adapt if they wanted to remain relevant. "The family farm must be preserved but I do not want to lock it in concrete," he said during the confirmation hearings in the Senate. "If the family farm I grew up on had not adjusted we would be shucking corn by hand and we would be knocking potato bugs off potatoes with a wooden handle...The family farm has to adjust. It has to produce more in the days ahead to survive." The concerns about Butz's business philosophy, as well as his opposition to the free school lunch program and his call for cuts to food stamp aid, made for a divisive decision. Voting mostly along party lines, with Democrats and a handful of farm state Republicans opposed, the Senate was 51-44 in favor of Butz becoming the new Secretary of Agriculture.

Butz immediately pushed for a new approach to agriculture, putting a heavy focus on exports. He encouraged farmers to boost their production, increasing the size of their crops so the surplus could be sold overseas. Meanwhile, government subsidies to farmers would be sharply reduced. The system revamped the New Deal farm policies of price supports, government grain purchases, and letting some land lie fallow to avoid soil erosion; now the government would make direct payments to farmers based on a set price for a product. Both the New Deal and Butz models sought to get farmers a fair price for their crop in a bad year. With the Butz model, farmers were encouraged to grow as much as possible and sell at any price, since the government would make up the difference if their sale price was less than the government's benchmark.

Butz was trying to strike a delicate balance. The surplus sales would allow farm income to increase, while the cost of government subsidies would decrease and food prices would remain stable. But the combination of excess crops and reduced price supports could also harm farmers during surplus years, while heavy exports could lead to increased food prices and food shortages. A $30 million grain shipment to the Soviet Union in 1972 was the first major export, and it led directly to the spike in prices, food shortages, and subsequent protests and boycotts.

The policy was successful in its other goals, however. Farm income increased 20 percent between 1970 and 1976, while government subsidies fell from $3.7 billion to $500 million in the same period. Butz's supporters argued that the rising tide lifted all boats, helping to increase agricultural profitability overall. Food exports continued, including a 16.5 million ton grain shipment to the Soviet Union in 1975 and another one of 2.2 million tons in 1976.

But the ripple effect was also apparent in less savory ways as well. Poultry farmers were hit hard, as grain producers were able to corner the market on feed. Some were forced into contracts with food processors, having to ramp up production for little or no payout. Other poultry farmers were so desperate to keep feed prices manageable that they slaughtered any chicks they wouldn't be able to raise. More recent critics have suggested that Butz's policies inhibited agricultural progress in developing countries and helped increase obesity rates in the United States.

The fears that Butz would give preference to large agribusinesses while taking an "adapt or die" philosophy toward smaller farms were well-founded. Large grain exporters were allowed to buy up surpluses at bargain prices while further benefiting from subsidies. Officials from the Department of Agriculture often found high-level positions in agribusiness after they left government service. Susan Demarco, a founder of the Agribusiness Accountability Project, declared, "Secretary Butz is not a friend of family farmers; he is their funeral director." Carol Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of America, said Butz was "a spokesman for the big corporate farmers, for the food processors, and for the grocery people. He's not on the side of farmers or consumers. He's on the side of people who buy from farmers and sell to consumers."

Butz brushed aside such allegations, saying that they were politically motivated. He defended his policies, saying that smaller farmers were less efficient. Stopping the exports and deferring more to small producers, he argued, would lead to less food production and higher government subsidies, while shortages and increased food prices would continue. Butz also criticized agricultural unions of being selfish, and he was unsympathetic to concerns about the use of pesticides and chemicals to increase crop yields. “Before we go back to organic agriculture, somebody is going to have to decide what 50 million people we are going to let starve," he said.

Ford retained Butz following Nixon's resignation, but there were rumors that he was not long for the post. In 1975, it was suggested that Ford considered Butz to be too much of a liability for his 1976 election chances and that he planned to appoint a new Secretary of Agriculture before then. In fact, Butz had sought to leave the post for personal reasons the year before, but Ford convinced him to stay on. When Jimmy Carter became the Democratic nominee for President in 1976, he made it clear that he would not keep Butz in the Cabinet if he was elected.

In August of 1976, Butz was flying back to Washington from the Republican National Convention with singers Pat Boone and Sonny Bono as well as John W. Dean III, who had served as White House Counsel under Nixon and testified as a key witness for the prosecution in the Watergate scandal. Dean had recently finished a prison term for his role in Watergate and had been hired by Rolling Stone magazine to cover the convention. Boone asked Butz how the GOP could attract more black voters.

Butz replied, "The only thing the coloreds are looking for in life are tight pussy, loose shoes, and a warm place to shit."

The comment made it into the Rolling Stone article penned by Dean, though it was attributed only to a Cabinet official. New Times magazine investigated further, analyzing the itineraries of Cabinet members and naming Butz as the offending party. The comment was lewd enough that most newspapers could only paraphrase it. But once members of both major political parties learned of the statement, they began to call for Butz to resign or for Ford to fire him. Ford again gave Butz a "severe reprimand" for "highly offensive" rhetoric, and Butz again issued a public apology.

This time, the controversy didn't go away. The Carter campaign criticized Ford for a lack of leadership, saying he too easily forgave officials for their misconduct and that Butz's remarks were offensive enough that he should have been fired. The public had not forgotten Ford's hasty pardon of Nixon in the wake of Watergate; the Butz incident, Carter's campaign charged, was just another attempt at whitewashing. This time, it seemed that Ford was hoping the scandal would evaporate so that Butz could stay in the Cabinet and help direct more of the farm vote to Ford.

With the pressure continuing to mount shortly before the election, Butz announced that he would resign. He said “the use of a bad racial commentary in no way reflects my real attitude,” and hoped that the action would remove any suspicions that Ford or his administration were racist. But Butz was not entirely contrite. He complained that he had been repeating an old joke, and that the remark was taken out of context. "This is the price I pay for a gross indiscretion in a private conversation," he griped. Butz also said he would continue to advocate for Ford during his campaign unless the President asked him not to. Ford accepted the resignation, saying it was "one of the saddest decisions of my presidency." John A. Knebel, the undersecretary of agriculture, took over the position.

Opinions differed on whether the comments truly reflected Butz's beliefs. Sympathizers suggested that no one was likely to come out unscathed if all their private conversations were made public; Butz was simply a victim of a bad joke that became publicized, they argued. Critics said Butz's offensive comments had enough of a pattern that they implied disdain for certain racial and ethnic groups. The Carter campaign continued to criticize Ford's leadership and handling of the situation, accusing the President of waiting until after the release of opinion polls to decide what to do.

Butz again returned to Purdue to serve as dean emeritus of the school of agriculture, but also became a much sought-after lecturer on farm issues. Risque language continued to be a trademark of his, but none of his comments elicited further controversy. Butz was critical of Democratic farm policies in general, but was more complimentary of Carter due to the new President's agricultural background. "Say what you will about his being a peanut farmer and all that born again baloney, he is a very skilled politician," Butz said in a 1977 speech. "He is the most skilled politician who has been in the White House since Franklin D Roosevelt."

When Butz got in trouble again, it was related to his lectures but not to their content. He was charged with fraudulently understating his 1978 federal taxable income by failing to report more than $148,000 earned in the talks. In May of 1981, he pleaded guilty to the charge. Butz said he had been very busy at the time and that he willfully decided to file in a lower tax bracket. "I was not in a strong cash flow position as of April 15," he admitted. "I could have borrowed money. I didn't." Butz was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation, and also ordered to make restitution on his unpaid taxes. The plea was part of a deal in which the government agreed not to investigate Butz's taxes from 1977. He served 25 days behind bars before his release.

The sentence did not have any major effect on Butz's lecturing circuit or his work at Purdue. His talks were successful enough that he was able to make a $1 million donation to the school of agriculture in 1999. Butz's earlier indiscretions would hurt him one last time in 2005, when Purdue considered naming a lecture hall for him. The plan was met with student protests and ultimately scrapped. Butz died in his sleep on February 2, 2008.

Sources:  "Butz is Confirmed to Cabinet Position" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Dec. 3 1971, "Catholics Want Earl Butz Removed" in the Tuscaloosa News on Nov. 27 1974, "Pope Remark by Earl Butz Under Attack" in the Observer-Reporter on Nov. 29 1974, "Earl Butz: Controversial Figure Regarding Today's Food Prices" in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on March 7 1975, "Earl Butz: A Controversial Man and His Agriculture" in the Palm Beach Post-Times on Jun. 27 1976, "President Reprimands Earl Butz" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Oct. 2 1976, "Butz' Ouster May Be Soon" in the Eugene Register-Guard on Oct. 3 1976, "Earl Butz Resigns Under Pressure" in the Observer-Reporter on Oct. 5 1976, "Earl Butz: Profile of a Barnburner" in the Miami News on Oct. 6 1976, "Butz' Words Paraphrased in Most Family Newspapers" in the Miami News on Oct. 6 1976, "'Private Joke' Ignited Public Furor" in the Miami News on Oct. 6 1976, "Earl Butz Wanted Resignation Later" in the Spokesman-Review on Oct. 12 1976, "Earl Butz Predicts Global Warfare if Food Production Doesn't Rise" in the Montreal Gazette on Aug. 29 1977, "Earl Butz Pleads Guilty to Income Tax Evasion" in the Toledo Blade on May 23 1981, "Earl Butz, Ex-U.S. Agriculture Secretary, Dies at 98" in Bloomberg on Feb. 3 2008, "Earl L. Butz, Felled by Racial Remark, Is Dead at 98" in the New York Times on Feb. 4 2008, "Earl Butz, History's Victim" on Slate.com on Feb. 4 2008, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, The New Encyclopedia of American Scandal by George C. Kohn

Harry S. Dent: the bad footnote

Image from washingtonpost.com

Were it not for a driver who accidentally struck and killed the beloved family dog of Harry Shuler Dent, Richard Nixon may not have become President. 

To be sure, Nixon was already trying to think of a way to court Southern votes as the 1968 election approached. The death of the dog provided an opportunity for him to get his foot in the door and make a gesture to Dent, then serving as a top assistant to ultraconservative and segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond, a Republican from South Carolina. Nixon sent the Dent family a new dog, and it won him a meeting. Dent told Nixon that the way to prevent a segregationist third party bid from siphoning off Republican votes was to win Thurmond's loyalty.  The very next day, he had the opportunity to do so. When a reporter asked him if he was embarrassed to share a party with Thurmond, Nixon replied, "Strom is no racist. Strom is a man of courage and integrity." 

It paid off for Nixon. During the 1968 primaries, Dent was initially supportive of then Governor Ronald Reagan of California, but swung his support to Nixon at Thurmond's urging. Thurmond himself led Nixon's campaign in the South, covering quite a bit of ground in the final months of the campaign to stump for him. Dent stayed in the background to some degree. In 1967, South Carolina Democratic executive director Donald Fowler accused Dent of "impugning the honesty of the Democratic Party" and demanded an apology. Dent responded by saying Fowler "should develop a tougher hide if he wants to survive in politics." 

Yet in the next year, Dent was himself demanding an apology from Democrats after black baseball legend Jackie Robinson accused Thurmond and Nixon of being racist and commented, "We might as well die in the streets fighting for our dignity as men as fight in Vietnam for freedoms we don't have for everybody at home." Dent responded, "The Democratic Party owes the people an apology. They are responsible for what Robinson said." 

Dent did have some role in organizing support for Nixon's nomination. Nixon won support easily in the South, as Reagan was ambivalent about running for the nomination and Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York was seen as a more liberal supporter of civil rights. 

Dent was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, in February of 1930. He graduated from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, in 1951 and went on to serve in the Army during the Korean War. For a time following his service, he worked as the Washington correspondent for several Southern newspapers and radio stations. He attended school at night, earning degrees from both George Washington University and Georgetown University Law School in 1959. 

Dent spent a decade with Thurmond, starting a few years after Thurmond's 1948 bid for President on a segregation plank. He played a major role in getting Thurmond to switch parties from Democratic to Republican, and also helped the senator in his record-breaking filibuster against a civil rights bill in 1957. Dent's actions then included keeping a pitcher of orange juice offered by a senator away from Thurmond so he wouldn't have to use the bathroom, and waiting outside the Senate chamber with a pail just in case Thurmond couldn't make it to a toilet following the day-long harangue. 

Dent's political strategy for the South had its roots in 1964, when he campaigned for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater. The election marked a shift away from traditional Republican stances, as Goldwater opposed civil rights and spoke out in favor of states' rights. Goldwater lost the election, but carried five states in the Deep South. The next year, Dent became the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and remained there until 1968. One notable action during his chairmanship was his opposition to a legislative bill which would allow a stock car race to take place in Darlington on a Sunday. Dent argued that the bill "violates our traditional observance for the Sabbath day at a time when too many other important American traditions are being extinguished for the purpose of expediency and obvious personal gain." 

After Nixon was elected in 1968, he appointed Dent was a special counsel and political adviser. He and Nixon immediately had to deny that the appointment was a reward for Thurmond's help in getting Nixon elected, and moderate Republicans worried that Dent would prove as much of a right-wing ideologue as Thurmond. Dent sought to assuage such fears, insisting that he answered to Nixon and not Thurmond. "I recognize that this country is bigger than the South and that the President has to have a stance that's national," he said in a 1969 interview with Time. "The thing that would do me the most harm would be if I took up the South's cause, waved the Confederate flag, and ran all through the White House yelling and being parochial." 

Contemporary accounts suggested that Dent was proving true to his word, and that he was able to mesh well with Nixon without going too far to the right. In 1971, he even tried unsuccessfully to get the South Carolina Republican executive committee to name a party chairman who would be more moderate on racial politics. 

However, the stances masked a more racially charged "Southern strategy" concocted by Dent. Nixon would deny that there was any ulterior motive to this strategy, declaring that "this Administration has no Southern strategy but rather a national strategy which, for the first time in modern times, includes the South rather than excludes the South." Dent worked as a liaison between the White House and various Republican groups around the country. He blamed Democrats for creating social programs that put a drain on middle class, and said that under the party's leadership the country was "filled with radical dissenters, cities were literally burning down, crime seemed uncontrollable." 

Though the "Southern strategy" never overtly identified itself with racial politics, it essentially sought to capitalize on Southern disillusionment with the Democratic Party. The Democrats traditionally attracted Southerners, but support waned following President Lyndon B. Johnson's civil rights efforts such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. A key component in winning over the South was an effort to assure Southerners that the White House would not overtly pursue civil rights issues, that it would appear to be supportive but not follow through on such matters. Edward Morgan, an assistant to Dent, summed it up in a memo to Nixon: "If we can keep the liberal writers convinced that we are doing what the Court requires, and our conservative Southern friends convinced that we are not doing any more than the Court requires, I think we can walk this tightrope until November, 1972." 

Dent urged Nixon to make conservative, pro-segregation appointments to the Supreme Court, including Clement F. Haynsworth, Jr. and G. Harrold Carswell. He also suggested to White House department heads that appointing white Southerners should be a top priority. The racial component of the strategy did not exactly go unnoticed at the time. Clarence Mitchell, a lobbyist with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, complained in late 1969 that Dent and other Nixon aides were hostile to the organization. Dent was not well-liked by liberals and moderates, and a 1969 Time article said people of those political persuasions considered him a "Southern-fried Rasputin in the White House." 

Dent's official title went through a few changes over the years, as he went from a special counsel to a deputy counsel and received a promotion to "chief political troubleshooter" in May of 1969. In 1970, he had to handle a minor flap involving his own actions when it was found that he wrote letters on White House stationary to blacks approached by his brother's home construction business. Dent denied that the letters were meant to help his brother's business, but rather to show that the Nixon Administration was fully supportive of federal programs for low-cost housing. Most of his brother's homes were financed through such programs, and though Dent denied that his brother requested that he send the letters he did say that his sibling complained that Democrats were getting most of the credit for such programs. Dent said he sent the letters because he "was interested in laying to rest any question as to where Richard Nixon stood on this program." 

At the close of 1972, following Nixon's re-election, Dent left his post to return to his law practice in Columbia, South Carolina, despite a request by Nixon to stay on in a promoted capacity. He announced that he was doing so because his key goal had been to help Nixon into a second term, he wanted to be closer to his family, and he wanted to distance himself from politics. Despite this last point, he said he would help Nixon or South Carolina Republican candidates if asked and often had to deny rumors that he would fill one of the numerous posts vacated in the wake of the Watergate scandal, or that he would run for governor or the Senate. 

In one odd advocacy move, Dent urged Fred B. Dent, who was no relation to Harry but had been named Secretary of Commerce after Nixon's re-election, to run for governor of South Carolina. Before long, Dent was serving as general counsel for the Republican National Committee. 

In 1974, the year rumors had him aiming for political office, Dent was caught in the expanding Watergate imbroglio. One of the practices uncovered in the investigation was Operation Townhouse, an illegal effort that raised $3 million for GOP candidates in 1970. The operation, so named because it ran from the basement of a private townhouse, essentially provided a slush fund with the goal of blackmailing recipient politicians if it ever came to it. The scheme was a violation of the Corrupt Practices Act, which forbid unregistered campaign groups from providing money in two or more states without first filing financial reports. 

Operation Townhouse was established by Nixon aide H.R. Haldeman, with Nixon calling the shots on who would receive funding. Dent admitted that he helped select which candidates would receive money, but did not know where the money was coming from. 

Dent was given the choice of going to trial on a felony charge of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. He chose the latter in December of 1974, admitting to a violation of federal campaign finance laws. He was sentenced to one month of unsupervised probation. He resigned from his post in the Republican National Committee as a result of the conviction. The court also netted Nixon's personal attorney, Herbert W. Kalbach, and another aide, Jack A. Gleason. 

Contemporaries were rather sympathetic to Dent. Political columnist Jack Anderson said Dent's role in the scandal was minimal and "like his mentor [Thurmond], is personally regarded as honest, even by his enemies." Anderson alleged that Dent had even privately denounced the "dirty tricks" in the White House and that such corruption spurred his departure from his post there. Judge George L. Hart, Jr. commented, "It does appear to be as if Mr. Dent were more of an innocent victim than a perpetrator." Dent thanked Hart for the light sentence, but also bemoaned that he would be associated with Watergate and said, "I'm destined for the history books as a bad footnote." 

Dent said he initially wanted to fight the charge, but was advised against it by his attorneys. He explained his reasoning in racially tinged terms, declaring, "I realized that if I went to trial in Washington, D.C., this old boy with the Southern accent wouldn't have a chance before an all-black jury."  

Dent's guilty plea was followed by a probe to see if he would be disbarred, but nothing came of it. He worked for the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. Dent also helped cripple John B. Connally's bid for the 1980 Republican nomination by associating him with blacks and gays; Connally grumbled that Dent was the "original dirty trickster." 

Dent turned his focus to religion, closing his law practice in 1981 and going into the Southern Baptist ministry. Following the fall of Nicole Ceausescu, Communist leader of Romania, Dent made several mission trips there to establish churches and orphanages. He helped to organize the first Senate prayer breakfast in 1989. 

Dent ultimately wrote five books. In one, he claimed the Southern strategy was meant to fight bias against the South, but when he started his ministry he admitted that he helped exploit racism to benefit Nixon. "When I look back, my biggest regret now is anything that stood in the rights of black people," he said. "Or any people" 

Dent died in Columbia in September of 2007 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. 

Sources: "Dent: Kill Raceway Bill" in the Sumter Daily Item on Feb. 15 1966, "Apology Asked Of Harry Dent" in the Herald-Tribune on Sep. 7 1967, "Thurmond To Head Nixon Campaign" in the Rock Hill Herald on Sep. 10 1968, "Dent Asking An Apology For Robinson" in the Rock Hill Herald on Oct. 23 1968, "Dent Says New Post No Reward To Strom" in the Sumter Daily Item on Dec. 4 1968, "Thurmond Aid Is Nixon Troubleshooter" in the Toledo Blade on Jun. 14 1969, "Nation: Up At Harry's Place" in Time on Jul. 11 1969 "Black Leader Calls Nixon Aides Hostile" in the Milwaukee Journal on Dec. 28 1969, "Dent Sends Double-Barreled Letters" in the St. Petersburg Times on Jun. 27 1970, "New Moderates Seem To Be Raising Their 'Ugly' Heads" in the Tuscaloosa News on Jan. 24 1971, "A Who's Who Of Prominent Republicans" in the Miami News on Aug. 21 1972, "Harry Dent Says He's Returning To S.C. Law Firm" in the Herald-Journal on Dec. 3 1972, "Harry Dent: President Won't Name Candidate" in the Herald-Journal on Dec. 3 1972, "Dent Says He's Leaving Post In Administration" in the Rock Hill Herald on Dec. 4 1972, "Dent Mentioned For Governor" in the Herald-Journal on Feb. 11 1973, "Harry Dent Thinks He's Not Considered" in the Herald-Journal on May 2 1973, "Washington Merry Go Round" in the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 22 1974, "Former Nixon Aide, Dent, Gets One Month Probation" in the Lewiston Daily Sun on Dec. 12 1974, "Ex-Nixon Aide Pleads Guilty" in the Reading Eagle on Dec. 12 1974, "Dent Faces Probe" in the Times-News on Jan. 10 1975, "Nixon Strategist To Seek Ford Votes" in the Sumter Daily Item on Jun. 12 1976, "Harry Dent" in the Herald-Journal on Nov. 8 1988, "Dent Set Stage For Political Upheaval" in The State on Jan. 21 2005, "Harry Dent, An Architect Of Nixon 'Southern Strategy,' Dies At 77" in the New York Times on Oct. 2 2007, "Harry Dent; Advised Key Republicans" in the Washington Post on Oct. 3 2007, "The Lives They Lived" in the New York Times on Dec. 30 2007, Nixon's Civil Rights: Politics, Principle, and Policy by Dean J. Kotlowski, From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution 1963-1994 by Dan T. Carter, President Nixon: Alone in the White House by Richard Reeves, Nixonland: The Rise of a President by Rick Perlstein