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| Book Reviews | | Book Reviews | Right Star Rising: A New Politics, concerns? Here we can help Kalman or “new”) could never warm up to 1974–1980 by providing some context. Theodore anyone on that family tree. White’s classic book, The Making of the Further, the draconian response by By Laura Kalman President, 1960, tells us that Nelson the New York State Police to the riot W.W. Norton & Co., New York, NY, 2010. 473 Rockefeller pressed the Republican at Attica Prison in 1971—a response pages, $27.95. Party that year at its convention to that left 39 people dead and for which accept platform language supporting Governor Rockefeller was, of course, the civil rights movement—in particu- responsible—created in some quarters REVIEWED BY CH R ISTOPHE R FAILLE lar, the blacks who were conducting an image of Rockefeller as a gendarme sit-down strikes at the lunch coun- recklessly or sadistically twirling his Laura Kalman’s Right Star Rising is a ters of pharmacies in Southern cities. nightstick while strutting rather than narrative political history of the period Rockefeller prevailed on this point. walking his beat. 1974 to 1980, a period that began with The platform as approved spoke of the resignation of Richard Nixon and “the constitutional right to peaceable Gerald Ford ended with the election of Ronald assembly to protest discrimination by The back-story supplied, we now Reagan. How did we get from one private business establishments” and rejoin Kalman. She tells us that the to the other? Kalman works from the praised “the action of the businessmen Rockefeller nomination inflamed the premise that a movement in the other who have abandoned discriminatory right, especially that portion of it that direction might reasonably have been practices in retail establishments.” had taken to calling itself the “new expected: Nixon’s fall might have set A cynic could see that as a ploy to right” at this time. The board of direc- off a leftward shift. Because it plainly exploit the well-known sectional divide tors of the American Conservative did not, this book begins in wonder. of the opposition party. But White is Union met on Sept. 22, 1974, and dis- Kalman’s answer to that question not cynical about this. Indeed, he gets cussed the nomination. Kalman, refer- is found in the concise statement she a bit misty-eyed about Rockefeller on ring to the minutes of this meeting, provides in the epilogue: the left and this point, writing that he “withdrew says that the participants decided “to the center were outmaneuvered. “It from the field of battle with honor, in discredit Rocky and show the rank and would be … obtuse to deny that dur- full control of his own state political file Republicans that he and Ford are ing the middle and late 1970s conser- system and delegates, and with the not conservatives.” She also quotes the vatives more effectively used conflicts knowledge that in the platform there direct-mail maven Richard Viguerie, over race, rights, religion, taxes, the were wordings … that would permit who referred to Rockefeller as “high- market, the family, national security, Richard M. Nixon to campaign on a flying [and] wild-spending.” the Middle East, détente, and American forward Republican position if he so What did Ford do about the tempest captivity and decline than [did] moder- chose. But it was up to Mr. Nixon.” raised on his right by this selection? He ates or liberals.” Four years later, Nelson Rockefeller caved in. At the end of October 1975, In the story she tells on the way to was the most determined intrapar- he informed the public that Rockefeller that conclusion, the fascinating figure ty opponent of the nomination of would not be his running mate in of Nelson Rockefeller, Gerald Ford’s Barry Goldwater, whom he called an the upcoming election. He presum- vice president, plays a large part. “extremist.” It was, accordingly, as ably meant to mollify those whom Indeed, he plays a part large enough much against Rockefeller as against any Rockefeller had annoyed. Indeed, he to deserve a back-story, which Kalman other person that Goldwater directed later expressed regret about this deci- neglects to bestow. his famous words at the Republican sion, calling it “one of the few cow- Party convention in 1964: “Extremism ardly things I did in my life.” Nelson Rockefeller in the defense of liberty is no vice. ... In fact, it was part of a hastily It was in the second week of Gerald [M]oderation in the pursuit of justice is arranged reshuffling. Ford also pushed Ford’s presidency, in August 1974, that no virtue.” Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller So, if Goldwater represented the out of the cabinet and replaced him as his vice president. Kalman tells us “right,” circa 1964, Rockefeller was not with Donald Rumsfeld. Schlesinger little about Rockefeller’s life before there. On the other hand, no sensible had been skeptical of détente with the that moment, but she does describe observer will see Rockefeller as a rag- Soviet Union, and this had put him him as a “charismatic politician,” and ing leftist. Indeed, his prominence at odds with Secretary of State Henry she mentions the concern on the in national politics would have been Kissinger (a longtime Rockefeller asso- part of members of Ford’s staff that unthinkable but for the wealth accu- ciate). The conservative publication Rockefeller would “overshadow the mulated by his grandfather, John D. Human Events said that the effect president.” Ford had no such concerns, Rockefeller, the paradigm of a perni- of the appointment of the unknown because he was “secure in himself.” cious, petroleum-engorged, proletari- Rumsfeld “has only fueled the concern Why should anyone have had such an-oppressing plutocrat. The left (“old” of those who fear that ... Kissinger 50 | The Federal Lawyer | January 2011 can now pursue his détente policies I can tell, vitiated by that regret, and I dom for all, yet allowed human bond- unchecked.” recommend this book for all of those age. This was what compromise had So Ford caved in on Rockefeller, (like myself) who were young and wrought for the young nation, and to chose Bob Dole as his running mate, foolish in the period she describes. I some leaders in the late 1850s—one and found that the cave-in achieved graduated from high school around the in particular—it was clear that the nothing. Ronald Reagan announced time that Ford was edging Reagan out time had come for the question to be his own campaign for the Republican for the 1976 nomination and Jimmy decided, rather than passed to the next nomination for the presidency soon Carter was triumphing over a much generation yet again. Would the nation thereafter, and the people who had wider field, and one naturally tends to be free everywhere, or would slavery been unhappy with Ford with respect regard the events of that time in one’s exist everywhere? To some, such as to Rockefeller were still unhappy with life as pivotal, epochal, and so forth. Abraham Lincoln, there was no middle Ford, now with respect to Rumsfeld So my own bias inclines me to endorse ground. and a hundred other matters, and they this book. Those who share the one To others, however—most notably rallied around the new hope from will enjoy the other. TFL Henry Clay—there was yet room for Hollywood. compromise on this pressing issue in Once, the phrase “moder- Christopher Faille, a member of the order to avoid conflict. In At the Edge ate Republican” meant … Nelson Connecticut bar since 1982, writes on of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Rockefeller. Whether one admired his a variety of financial issues, and is the Compromise that Saved the Union, policies as governor of New York co-author, with David O’Connor, of a Robert Remini, who has written exten- or not (and I said something unflat- user-friendly guide to Basic Economic sively on the pre-Civil War era, ven- tering about one of those policies in Principles (2000). tures into the time period again to my review of Confidence Game in examine the Compromise of 1850, the August 2010 issue of The Federal in which the Northern and Southern Lawyer), Rockefeller did offer a prin- At the Edge of the Precipice: states came to an agreement on the cipled position that was neither left Henry Clay and the Compromise admission to the Union of several new nor right in any stereotypical sense. that Saved the Union western territories and the status of But, after he had been, essentially, slavery in them. Unfortunately, this By Robert V. Remini dismissed in October 1975, “moder- informative but frustratingly dry work ate Republican” came to mean Gerald Basic Book, New York, NY, 2010. 200 pages, will not likely add to its author’s formi- Ford: a wishy-washy desire to seem $24.00. dable and well-earned reputation. moderate, as long as that stance didn’t Remini’s topic is interesting enough. upset the right too much. “Moderate Most Americans are taught at a young REVIEWED BY NATHA N BR OOKS Republican” has meant roughly that age how the “Great Triumvirate” of ever since, which is why there are so Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John few samples of the species left. It is often said that America is a Calhoun kept together a fractious nation born of compromises, with our nation through a series of well-crafted Much Else Constitution itself the result of high- and difficult compromises in the first Right Star Rising contains a great stakes horse-trading among the states half of the 19th century.
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