Washington Post Nix Ad 3 Nov 72 LaRue: Bringing nixie Home to Nixon pkgpue: Bringing eration, LaRue "keeps Mitchell's hand in By Myra MacPherson when he's not here," one committee source Frederick Cheney LaRue is Mr. Nixon's said. LaRue's title is special assistant to boy. campaign chief Clark MacGregor but he is southern known as "Mitchell's right-hand man," and While he didn't invent the "Southern the "go-between between MacGregor and strategy," LaRue, a wealthy Jackson, Miss., 1Vlitchell," former Attorney General and oil man, has helped operate it since Mr. Nix- Nixon campaign chairman until he resigned on's 1968 campaign. days. July 1. But more than that, LaRue is John Mitch- ell's surrogate in the campaign to re-elect the President—a campaign that Mitchell has LaRue is a latter-day Faulknerian charac- abandoned only officially. Mitchell still ter, an insignificant-looking man who left shows up regularly at the Committee for the the South for big-time politics—bringing Re-election of the President. with him the political practice of covert, be- A one-time unsuccessful dabbler in a Las hind-the-scenes manipulation. A man who Vegas gambling casino w'rio has surfaced as passionately, sought anonymity throughout , one of the most mysterious men in or close his wheeler-dealer days, LaRue, a former to the Watergate bugging and espionage op- unpaid White House counsel, was virtually Dixie Home to Nixon a shadow until the bugging break-in of the stroy important re-election committee memos Democratic National Committee's Watergate following the bugging break-in of the Dem- headquarters. ocratic National Committee. Friends and enemies alike describe One former White House acquaintance LaRue as an unprepossessing, nondescript said, "I really couldn't say that LaRue would man—a cigar- and pipe-smoking, balding 44- have dumped those records. Hell, all I know year-old who looks 50, is of middle height, is if it had been up to LaRue there would wears glasses and squints a little. The looks have been no records to dump." deceive anyone who tackles him in golf or According to Alfred Baldwin—a key gov- tennis. "He just •beat the hell out of me in ernment witness before the grand jury in- one tennis game," said one acquaintance. "He's vestigating the Watergate incident who madly competitive, plays for blood." worked for the re-election committee—an- other committee member issued Baldwin an LaRue is an important man. unregistered gun that once belonged to LaRue. Baldwin, who saict.he participated in • According to newspaper reports, LaRue casual conver- was one of-the men in charge of shredding; the Watergate raid, recalled a directing a massive "housecleaning" to de- See LaRTJE, B3, Col. 1 Fred LaRue in 1963. LaRUE, From B1 opponent, Mississippi lawyer Taylor Webb, said that LaRue had persuaded a Texas ad- sation with LaRue who, Baldwin said, "told me the pistol I was carrying had once been vertising agency to drop his (Webb's) cam- his weapon. As far as I knew, he was not in paign account. Webb said no one in Missis- security work and I did not know why he sippi would handle his advertising cam- would have needed a pistol. But I asked no paign, highly critical of Eastland. Missis- .questions." sippi newspaper reports at that time said • As Mitchell's ghost, LaRue is powerful Texas sources admitted the "President defi- at the committee. Barry Goldwater, for nitely played a role" in the decision to call whom LaRue • worked during Goldwater's off the agency. 1964 presidential campaign, grumbled the Webb, now suing the agency, said in a re- other day, "I don't know who the hell to re- gretful voice that his legal situation did not port to over at that outfit" (the re-election permit him to talk about the case or LaRue committee). But he added, "When you get to but that he stuck by his original story. the nit-pickin' and nut-crackin', the guys "They took my campaign away from me the running it are LaRue and Mardian." day they took my agency away from me," he Robert Mardian was an assistant Attorney said. General under Mitchell. Gil Carmichael, a Republican business- • La Rue's political style underscores the man who describes himself as having secretiveness, silence, loaylty and in-group "worked like hell for Nixon" and is "moder- around President Nixon. ate" enough to believe "blacks are under- Although he was a White House aide for paid," is another story. three years, La Rue was never listed in the "The White House just pulled the rug out' White House staff directories and some from under him," said one Mississippian. White House aides today say, "I never heard Helping to pull the rug )vas LaRue, ac- of him when he was over here." There are cording to Carmichael, reached as he criss- no pictures of him; his committee biography crossed the state in his current campaign reveals only the skimpiest age-rank-serial against Eastland—whom Carmichael terms number facts. "The Kingfish," "The Godfather" and the • Today La Rue—who helped woo Wal- possessor of the South's "most powerful po- lace votes to Nixon in 1968," is apparently litical machine." still keeping the "Southern Strategy" is alive and kicking. At least two men, one of "LaRue is the liaison man between East- them a Republican, running against Missis- land and the White House," said Carmi- sippi ,Democratic Sen. James 0. Eastland— chael. "Six months ago LaRue gave me a long considered a White House friend— real tough talk, said I was going to make an claim La Rue meddled in -campaigns this `enemy' of Eastland if I ran against him. year aimed at defeating the crusty 67-year- Asked if he thought that was a threat, Car- old anticivil rights chairman of the Senate michael laughed and said, "that's a pretty Judiciary Committee. good way to put it." One Jackson, Miss., newspaperman said, Carmichael soon had his "suspicions" "Fred runs a lot of messages for Eastland about LaRue: "From the time I talked to him things began to happen." Carmichael recounted that he had had his picture taken with President Nixon and like "A'though he was a White several other senatorial candidates, wanted to use it for campaign purposes. "Everyone House aide for three years, else got theirs, but mine 'just got lost.' Then I wasn't on the podium at the convention LaRue was never listed in when they introduced all the other senato- rial candidates. The only thing I can put my the White House staff direc- finger on is • Mr. LaRue was protecting Mr. Eastland. But the worst thing thata aggra- tories and some White House vated me was Kleindienst coming down to endorse Eastland to a 'fat cat crowd.' That's aides today say, 'I never that whole Kleindienst-Mitchell-LaRue heard of him when he was group." over here.' Eastland says in his soft voice, "Well, lady, I don't know anything about any of that," and didn't know anything about LaRue down here. The administration really owes wo\king in his behalf. "Course, I'd judge so much to Eastland. He protected the Jus- he'd vote for me. He's a friend of mine. I ex- tice Department from the beginning in the pect I'll get half the Republican votes down ITT case and then there was the Senate ap- here." proval of Nixon's Supreme Court Justices Eastland and Fred's father, Ike Parsons and Kleindienst." During the hearings on LaRue Sr., were "intimate friends" who Kleindienst's nomination for Attorney Gen- "went fishing," Eastland says. I. P. LaRue eral, Eastland said Kleindienst was being Sr.—who left the oil fields of Texas for Mis- "persecuted" and fought against expanding sissippi in the '30s—struck it rich in Bolton the Kleindienst-ITT probe. oil field, about 25 miles west of Jackson, in Last spring, Eastland's primary election the '50s. Fred, who got a degree in geology at the University of Oklahoma in 1951 was a pause, that she isn't sure why they are be- back working for his father. LaRue compa- ing sold and didn't know exactly where nies discovered seven oil or gas fields in the 6 tics, Eastland paused and said, "Indirectly." Fred's wife, Joyce, and their. five children LaRue money was, as they say in the would move. South, "spread around" in lots of campaigns. When LaRue is in Washington, which is One Mississipian said, "Whether it's war- most of the time these days, he stays in his rented or not, the LaRues have a reputation Watergate apartment. His sister says , of backing anybody. Whoever wins, you're LaRue's wife has been a "real good sport" covered—you've got some friends on the oil about his traveling. "They've done a marvel- or gas boards." ous job of working this• out. It'd be awful Today the money is reported to have hard for me to take." dwindled — one acquaintance said "I think Ike Jr. is affably taciturn, volunteering no information, responding in monosyllables to questions. One Mississippian said, The family is especially silent about the hunting accident in the late '50s when ether it's warranted or LaRue accidently shot and killed his father. Ike says, "Dad died in 1957. He was killed in not, the LaRues have a repu- a hunting accident, yes." Responding to an- other question. Ike said. "Fred was involved, on (If backing anybody.