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The Vice President is most influential with the President in dealing with state and local governments. Specifically assigned to coordinate the three levels of government, Agnew has established excellent communications with the Governors, although many mayors are unhappy with his efforts to channel federal funds to cities through the states. Still, Nixon listens to Agnew on domestic matters; the Vice President has traveled 77,091 miles in the U.S. since January, observing at each stop.
Agnew witnesses the decision-making in such areas as Viet Nam or the ABM, but he does not really participate. Asked to name a major contribution the Vice President has made to policy, a White House adviser modified Ike's reply regarding Nixon: "If you give me ten minutes, I might think of something." Eisenhower said that he would need a week, and Agnew could thus be considered a considerable improvement. Nonetheless, the Vice President has complained to friends that he feels like an errand boy. Says one of his aides: "He misses the authority of a top executive. When he was Governor of Maryland, he had full control of his schedule." Now his weekends and evenings as well as his days are at the disposal of the President. Although he dislikes parties, he attends about four receptions a week, for foreign visitors, for example, or party leaders.
Senate Failure
The first Vice President in 24 years with no Senate experience, Agnew has not had an easy time on the Hill. In the early months after the Inauguration, he conscientiously courted Senators, attending each noon's opening of business, presiding in the chair to learn parliamentary procedures and school himself in Senate ways. He lunched with members in the Senators' dining room. Most important, he flattered Senators by his deference, thereby convincing them of his wit and discernment. He worked so hard at his homework during those first months that he burst a blood vessel in his eye.
Last summer, however, perhaps feeling overly buoyant about his good national press, Agnew began lobbying clumsily for Administration programs. He started with the ABM, buttonholing members on the Senate floor, then repeated the mistake in an attempt to get the income-tax surcharge extended for a year. As a wheeler-dealer, he failed ingloriously and provoked a curt civics lesson from Majority Leader Mike Mansfield: "A Vice President should not interfere in Senate affairs regardless of his party. He is not a member of the Senate. He's a half-creature of the Senate and a half-creature of the executive." In recent weeks, perhaps as a result, Agnew has displayed little interest in the Senate. The pattern worries some Republicans, since it has occurred before: Agnew has a tendency to give up and turn away when rebuffed.
Life Styles
He is defensive about the press. "Now it seems to be fashionable to make out Agnew to be some kind of goof," he tells friends. "I don't think I'm a brain. I've got an I.Q. of about 135 when it was last tested. I think that's pretty fair." He has been known to remark unhappily: "I'm still fighting the idea of being a rather ill-equipped, fumbling, obtuse kind of person."