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Fresh Charges. One of his main jobs for Nixon—running the Office of Intergovernmental Relations, which handles White House liaison with Governors and mayors—was taken away from him in January. His staff was brusquely cut by 23%. He feels so ill at ease presiding over the Senate—his chief task as laid down in the Constitution —that this year he has been in the chair only 2% of the time the Senate has been in session. One bitter quote sums up Agnew's unhappiness in his job. "The President needs me at the White House," he once remarked, excusing himself from a meeting. "It's autumn, you know, and the leaves need raking."
Amid everything else, fresh allegations of misdeeds continued to appear.
The Washington Post reported yet a new scandal—a Maryland engineering consultant named Lester Matz, an old friend of Agnew's and a man also under investigation, was said to have admitted giving Agnew $25,000 over the years.
TIME learned of another complication for the Vice President from a close Agnew associate. According to the associate, campaign contributions accepted by Agnew when he was in Maryland politics were deposited in Agnew's personal bank accounts. Agnew reportedly insists that he did not use any of the money for personal purposes, but he does not have the canceled checks and receipts to prove that he turned it all over to his campaign committee. Agnew's attorneys vigorously deny the whole allegation, and the Justice Department refused to comment.
Can Agnew pull a Nixon? The leadership of the Democratic Party, which controls both the House and the Senate, has already thought through the procedures that would be followed if the Vice President goes. The 25th Amendment, ratified in 1967 to handle such emergencies, says only that "the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority of both houses of Congress." According to current plans, a committee in each chamber would conduct a hearing on the nomination calling witnesses for and against and questioning the nominee at length. Each committee would report to its parent chamber, and then the House and Senate would take separate votes, the nominee needing at least 51% of the ballots in each case to be confirmed.
That seems simple enough, but the real question is what presidential nominee could get past both the House and Senate. The Democratic leaders would be willing to let Nixon name someone from his own party who reflected his thinking. But they are not yet ready to build a launching platform for a man likely to be a strong Republican presidential candidate himself in 1976—a man, say, like John Connally.
Call to Arms. To avoid a fight, Robert Strauss, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that he hoped that Nixon "would make a nonpresidential type of appointment," someone of elder-statesman status who would promise not to run in 1976. Indeed, the conjecture could be made—it was that kind of week—that Nixon would be wise to nominate a caretaker Vice President. If he named too strong a man, he might make it easier for Congress to impeach the President.