Washington Post 11 Oct 72

Muskie Demands Personal Nixon Response to Charges

By Carl Bernstein doled a racial slur ("Can- began a search for Paul Mor- It purports that its author and ucks") on Americans of. rison. He has never turned was paid $1,000 to write fife Washington Post Staff Writers French-Canadian descent. up. two origival r letters, with Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, Miss Berger , said Clawson bri, the Saturday before the promises of $.2,500 mote to be then told her he wrote the New Hampshire primary, the identified by federal inves- paid after publ)eation. tigators as the victim oran letter in hopes of damaging Union-Leader published a sec- elaborate White House hoax Muskie . because _he was. the ond letter related to the inci- The UnineLeader has yet that apparently damaged his strongest potential opponent dent. to 'run the third letter in its presidential campaign, de- to President Nixon. At an- letter came from a man letter-to-the-editors columr manded yesterday that Presi- other point in the conversation, putting to he ifarold said Miss Berger, Clawson re- and has,. assigned the whol( dent Nixon personally respond Eldredge of Fort Lauderdale, matter th its chief investiga Co information linking the ferred to writing the letter Fla., who—in his, „. letter— and said, "That's politics." tive reporter, according tc President's staff to widespread claimed tUhave been the per publisher Loeb. acts( of political spying and Clawson, a former Washing- son who asked Mr. Muskie •the' sabotage. ton Post reporter, was inter- question about his knowledge 1VItiskie, without directly viewed Monday and denied of the blacks." ntioning the celebrated that he had 'claimed author- "The young man (Morrison) ship of the "Canuck" letter, -"danuck letter" episode that . . . did not lie, he told the investigators say was engi- saying Miss Berger must have truth," the Eldredge letter neered by a White House aide, misunderstood him. "I know said. also called for an independent nothing about it," Clawson said, adding that the first time The Eldredge letter also investigation of what he called produced an unsuccessful na- "the espionage activities of he heard of the matter was when "I saw it on television" tionwide search for its author the President's staff." by repOrter. The senator, who ap- following the Muskie "crying parently was victimized by an speech." According to federal agents, amazingly complicated chain The first "Canuck" letter—. the "Canuck" incident of events that figured in his there were three—appeared in mentioned in both letters "crying speech" two weeks be- the Manchester (N.H.) Union `never happened; bOth letters fore the New Hampshire pri- leader on Feb. 24. It said in were part of an elaborate hoax mary, said in a prepared state- part, in these words: and the whole project was en- ment yesterday: "We went to Ft. Lauderdale gineered by a White Rouse "These press reports (of a to meet Sen. Muskie . . . one aide, working with others. massive. spying-and- of the men asked Wan what Meanwhile, tie Union Lead- sab directed did he know about blacks and er received aigrird letter t W h presidential the problems with them—He month=this one also sib re-elec n.Qaides) suggek a po- didn't have any in Maine a "Harold W. El dredge." litical opposition which is man with the senator said. No ruthless and unprincipled. blacks but we have Cannocks. These reports of wrongdoing What did he mean? We asked by members of the White —Mr. Muskie laughed and House staff are so serious that said come to and they require a response by the see...." The letter was signed President himself." "Paul Morrison, Deerfield Muskie, whose standing in Beach, Fla.," the ''New Hampshire polls The day the letter appeared began to slip immediately in the Union Leader, the news- after the "crying speech," paper also ran a front-page added: "The President should editorial—based on the let- tell us if these reports are ter—under the headline: "Sen. true, how he proVoses to get Muskie insults Franco-Ameri- at the facts of these charges cans." and whether he condones this The next day, the paper ran kind of political espionage op- a second anti-Muskie item, this eration L,. What's involved one a reprint of an unflatter- here an alleged corruption ing article in NeWsweek about of the wlitical process with the senator's Wife. When Mus- *which e ry citizen must be kie arrived to speak in front concerned." of the newspaper's office on According to federal agents Feb. 26, he broke down and who investigated the Water- cried, calling William Loeb, gate bugging incident the Can- Union Leader publisher, a uck letter incident , was engi- "gutless coward" for printing neered by a White House aide an attack on his wife and a whose name has not been re- slur on himself. vealed to The Washington The next day Muskie Post by investigative sources. charged that the so-called However, Washington Post Canuck letter was a a hoax,, staff writer. Marilyn Berge and that the incident men-i• has reported that Ken tioried in Florida had never Clawson, deputy director of happened. Reporters who had White House communications, been at the Senator's side in volunterered to her in a Sept. Florida said they •remembered 25 conversation, "I wrote the no such Indidentiqind several letter"—in which the author newspapers including Union said Sen. Muskie had con- Leader, according to Loeb— 1 i misaltra (OL 1,4100t4 LUNA Wog* Mood 4 1m X11 1 t:Wip

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ano; Leyeis form

This letter appeared in the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leadei Feb. 24.