(6 of 10)
The Unbreakable. Selected to lead the California delegation to the Republican National Convention, Knowland was avidly wooed by presidential hopefuls. From the Eisenhower camp came strong hints that the vice-presidential nomination could be his. From the Taft forces (but not from Taft himself) came a direct promise that support for the Ohioan would give Knowland second place on the national ticket. But Knowland and his delegation were pledged to back Earl Warren for President—and Bill Knowland has never broken his word. At Chicago, disturbed by reports that his Senate Colleague Richard Nixon was trying to get the California delegation to defect to Ike. Knowland called a secret caucus arid faced his delegation shaking with anger. "I just want everyone in this room to know," he rumbled, "that never in history has any delegate ever violated his pledge and been respected again." There were no defections: California stayed solid for Warren through the first (and only) ballot. Then Bill Knowland saw Dick Nixon nominated for Vice President of the U.S.
With his own re-election just a formality, Knowland rode the 1952 Eisenhower campaign train all fall, and it was on Bill's broad shoulder that Nixon fell sobbing in Wheeling, W. Va. when Ike declared his running mate guiltless in the campaign-fund uproar. The elections were barely over when Knowland announced that he was a candidate for majority leader of the 83rd Congress against anybody except Styles Bridges, the Senate's senior Republican and one of Knowland's closest Washington friends. By mid-December, it was obvious that Bob Taft also wanted to be majority leader, and a first-class fight appeared to be shaping up. In the end, a slate was worked out: Taft for majority leader; Knowland, just beginning his second full term, for chairman of the powerful Republican Policy Committee; Bridges for president pro tempore.
If Taft had been one to harbor grudges, there were plenty he could have harbored against Bill Knowland, who had challenged him in the Senate and refused to deal with him for the presidency. But Taft was perfectly aware of Bill Knowland's basic quality. Late on the afternoon of June 9, 1953, Bob Taft, fatally ill, entered Styles Bridges' office, dropped heavily into a chair and said quietly: "I'm going to be away and I've asked Bill to carry on for me. Nobody can push him around."