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To keep the convention flowing smoothly, Reagan's floor manager, Illinois Congressman Bob Michel, and Reagan's convention director, William Timmons, worked behind the scenes, massaging disgruntled conservatives and moderates to keep them from violating the theme of unity. Said Connally, who watched the proceedings from the galleries: "The word went out that everyone ought to be courteous, reasonable. Underlying it all was the sobriety of success." The word was passed by 17 Reagan whips, wearing red and white hats. Reagan stalwarts recognized those hats as the same kind that Ford's forces, who were also led by Timmons, wore when they beat back Reagan's challenge on the floor of the 1976 convention in Kansas City, Mo. Groused North Carolina Delegate Tom Ellis: "They didn't even have to buy new hats. They're the same hats with the same bodies that were against us four years ago."
The Reagan whips blocked a move by far-right forces, organized by Howard Phillips, national director of the Conservative Caucus, to keep Kissinger from addressing the convention. Said Phillips: "We hope that Ronald Reagan will not be the third President to work for Henry Kissinger." (Kissinger insisted that he had no such aspirations. Said he: "I am not here as a job seeker.") Similarly, the Reagan lieutenants vetoed moderate moves that might discomfit conservatives. Thus when New York Republican National Committeeman Richard Rosenbaum urged convention managers to schedule a brief tribute to Nelson Rockefeller ("We have to make room for decency in politics"), he was rebuffed. Reagan's advisers reasoned that a tribute to Rockefeller, even though he is dead, might reopen the bitter ideological quarrel of 1964.
Despite many moderate Republicans' anger over several hard-line platform planks, all efforts to amend them were squelched. To protest the platform's repudiation of the ERA, some 4,500 women (and a few men) marched through downtown Detroit as a sidewalk band mockingly played I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad. But when John Leopold, a member of the Hawaii delegation, proposed from the floor that the platform be reconsidered, he failed to stir support from any delegation.
Illinois Senator Charles Percy suffered an even tougher defeat at the hands of his own state's delegation. He took vigorous exception to the platform's judiciary plank, which proposes that only people who oppose abortion should be appointed federal judges. "The worst plank that has ever been in a platform," railed Percy at a special caucus of the Illinois delegation. But at a Reagan lieutenant's request, two Illinois delegates were prepared to deflect Percy's challenge. The delegation voted by 75 to 27 to table Percy's motion.
With dissent stifled on the floor Reagan cound afford to spend the second day of the convention soothing hurt feelings. He met in the morning with 17 women, including his daughter Maureen, 39, who describes herself as a feminist. He promised to seek out women for high appointive office and work to repeal state and federal laws that discriminate against women. Said former G.O.P. National Chairman Mary Louise Smith, an ERA supporter: "We came away feeling good."