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Some of Agnew's major miscues have been unintentional ethnic slurs. He jovially referred to a Japanese-American reporter accompanying him as a "fat Jap." In Chicago, where the Congressmen have names like Pucinski, Kluczynski and Rostenkowski, he answered a question about the dearth of Negroes in his audiences by saying: "Very frankly, when I am moving in a crowd I don't look and say, 'Well, there's a Negro, there's an Italian, and there's a Greek and there's a Polack.' " Before newsmen late last week, Agnew sought —with some success—to make light of the whole thing by referring to himself as "Greek, er, Grecian."
Earlier, while traveling in Hawaii, he complained that Americans are now "up so tight that we can't communicate with each other, and our sense of humor is beginning to disappear." Muskie could not let that one pass. "Mr. Agnew tells us that we lack a national sense of humor," Muskie remarked dryly. "I think he is doing his best to restore it."
* A Mervin Field poll released last week showed that California voters believe that Muskie does more for the Democratic ticket than Spiro Agnew does for the Republican. All told, 11% of the state's Republicans think that Agnew weakens their ticket, while 17% consider him an asset. Only 6% of the Democrats think Muskie hurts the ticket, while 25% consider him an asset.