Vice President Spiro Agnew scanned a newspaper article critical of him, angrily tossed it aside and noted somewhat bitterly: "If I followed the advice of all my critics, I'd still be in Baltimore." Indeed, there are many who would like to see the Vice President back in Baltimore again—some of them among Richard Nixon's inner circle. Since he reached the high mark of his popularity with Republican pols on the give-'em-hell fund-raising circuit a year ago, Agnew has fallen to such low esteem that there has been open talk for weeks about kicking him off the Republican ticket in 1972.
As chief spokesman for the Administration's harsh line during the 1970 elections, Agnew took the fight to the Democrats—and to errant Republican Charles Goodell of New York—with speeches crafted by White House ghostwriters and a relish reminiscent of an earlier Richard Nixon. His performance ran according to plan, but the results did not; in the postmortem, Agnew received a good deal of the blame for the Republicans' relatively poor showing. For once, Agnew staff members agreed with his critics in the press: the responsibility, they insist, belongs to some of the same White House types who are currently pushing for Agnew's removal. Says one Agnew adviser: "The ones I'm bitterest about are those birds who knew that what the Vice President was doing in 1970 was part of a battle plan. They knew he was under orders. When it flopped, they were the loudest in denouncing him."
Lackluster Tour. When President Nixon relaxed trade restrictions with China following the first gambits of Ping Pong diplomacy, Agnew warned against a sudden thaw in U.S.-Chinese relationships. Nixon, engaged in delicate negotiations with Peking, did a slow burn over his Vice President's outspokenness on the issue. Agnew was abroad when Nixon appeared on television July 15 with his China announcement. He subsequently endorsed the Peking visit, downplaying earlier differences. Relations between Nixon and Agnew, never very close, have become chillier. Says one White House aide: "I see the old man's private calendar and Agnew's never on it."
Agnew's recent foreign tour was lackluster at best, and his remarks condemning black leaders in the U.S. are considered a new burden for an Administration already fighting charges of hostility toward blacks. Lately he has spent more time away from Washington, frequently playing golf with celebrity and sport cronies. He continues his rounds of the Republican banquet circuit, but even in this familiar role his aides sense a growing ennui. His pride is affronted by the small ceremonial duties of the vice presidency that he calls "Hubert Humphrey make-work projects."
Agnew's doldrums plus complaints from liberal Republicans and disenchanted White House aides are hardly enough to make Nixon switch, but the electoral equation next fall could force him to. Should Nixon decide that he must run a more moderate campaign than is consonant with Agnew's image, then he might well replace Agnew with a more suitable running mate. Or, should it seem necessary, he could name another conservative Republican, in hopes of holding voters on the right while still getting rid of Agnew's predictable fractiousness.