Agnew 2d-Term Lack of Direction Marks Vice Pyoesidenes Days By George Lardner Jr. mittees, and transforming himself until Washington Post Staff Writes his recent misfortunes into a likely Re- In a constitutional sense, Spiro Agnew publican presidential candidate in 1976. is still the sEurie man he was a few weeks Besides being Vice President, Agnew ago. is also vice chairman of the Domestic He presides"over the Senate when he's Council, chairman of the National Coun- in the mood, he has the power to cast a cil on Indian Opportunity, and a regent vote there in the event of a tie and of the Smithsonian Institution. He is he serves as a standby in case some- also a member of the National Security thing should happen to. the President Council and sits in on meetings of the It isn't much of a job, as Agnew's Cabinet. predecessors have made abundantly clear. Even so, he seems to have been left FDR's first Vice President, John Nance in second-term limbo months ago. Most Garner, said it .wasn't "worth a pitcher of the committees and councils he used of warm spit." When Calvin Coolidge to head have been abolished. Agnew won the GOP's vice presidential nomi- had been waiting all year for the Presi- nation in 1920, the incumbent under dent to tell him what, if any, new chores Woodrow Wilson, Vice President Thomas he vas supposed to take charge ot He R. Marshall, sent Coolidge a telegram has yet to be enlightened and isn't likely that read: to be so long as the cloud of the federal "Please accept my sincere sympathy." grand jury investigation in Baltimore In modern times, however, Agnew has hangs over him. made more of the vice presidency than "This whole vice presidential game," most, becoming a household word with confesses one Agnew aide,, "is the most his biting speeches, heading a shifting amorphous thing I've ever seen." array of government councils and com- See DUTIES,A6, Col. 1- ,, DUTIES, From Al tainty over what his role during Mr. Last December, however, Mr. Nixon Most of Agnew's time used to 'be Nixon's second term would be. ordered the intergovernmental chores spent on his informal role as speech- "Quite candidly, the President hasn't transferred to the Domstic Council inaker, front man, and roving ambassa- defined my role yet," Agnew said in an and promoted Kenneth R., Cole to the dor for President Nixon and the Re- interview then. "I don't know exactly council's executive directorsh.O. Offi- publican Party. He'll be out making what I'll be doing and it's' up to the cials insisted at the time that the con- more speeches in the weeks ahead, President to define it." solidation in no way dirninshed Ag- but, aides confirm, they'll be 'devoted He was still Waiting to find out when new's responsibilities since, they said, largely to the defense of Spiro T. Ag- ' he was officially notified on Aug. 1 he was vice chairman -- well, de facto, that he was under investigation by vice chairman of the Domestic new. • gbvernment prosecutors on possible Council anyway. "He doesn't see how anyone can di- charges of bribery, extortion, tax fraud If the explanation seemed strained vorce his situation from the undue at- and conspiracy in. December, it became even more of a tention on the whole Watergate busi- Meanwhile, Agnew's idle hours have curiosity on May 2 — two days after ness," says his Press secretary, J. been increasing. Besides being Vice the resignation of top White House Marsh Thomson. I-3resident, Agnew in his first term was aides because of the widening Water- Working with his attorneys on legal 'Ilse 'chairman of the Office of Inter- gate scandal. The White -House soberly strategy has also been making its in- governmental Relations, the National announced in that occasion that Ag roads on the Vice President's calendar. Council on Marine Resources and En- new would be given .inrportant new "It's been taking up a hell of a lot of gineering, the National Aeronautics duties, including the real vice chair- his time," 'says ' Victor Gold, Agnew's and Space Conncil, the National Advi- manship of the Domestic Council. first press secretary and still a close sory Committee on the Peace Corps, Two weeks later, ;Agnew forthrightly friend. the President's Council on Youth Fit- admitted that he was still in the dark "It's the first order of priority, with- ness, the Committee on Equal Employ- about what those new responsibilities out any question," Thomson said of the ment Opportunity, the President's were to be. "To be very honest," one legal battle. "The lawyers and the Vice Council on Youth Opportunity and the 'associate said this week, "we never got President consult each other whenever President's. Council on Recreation and the further elaboration." ' either thinks it necessary. But it's not Natural Beauty. The Vice President's statements at a a consistent amount of time from day 'That kind of work, Gold says, "has press conference -last month suggested to day." _ diminished." In fact, according to the one possible explanation. ' Determined by now to stay on the Vice President's office, note of those Agnew said he had been aware job and ride out the storm, Agnew is groups still exists. "through rumor" of the investigation also trying to stick as best he can to During happier days, Gold said, the of his affairs since February. Subse- his pre-crisis routine. That isn't easy Vice President would often "be out of quently, he said, he discussed those ru- for any man under criminal investiga- town two or three days a week—mak- mors with Alexander Haig, "who tion, but it's especially hard for the ing speeches,• attending governors' con- brought them to the President's atten- Vice President of the United States. ferences, meeting with elected offi- tion?' Haig was named acting White The problem for Agnew, as for any cials." In Washington, he kept himself House chief of staff on May 4 — right Vice President, is to figure out what busy greeting foreign visitors, 'attend- on the heels of theannouncement that business as usual is supposed to be. ing various meetings, honing speeches Agnew would be given key new assign- "The Vice President is the creature and helping tend' to the "tremendous ments, which never materialized. of the President," political scientist J. amount of mail and correspondence" Since then, for example, it has/been F. Menez once said "He has exactly as that poured into his' office. made clear to Agnew and his staff that - much prestige, power and patronage as Agnew also put in a lot of work as if the White House wanted the fielp,of the President will divert to him ... the administration's spokesman to the Vice President's expertise in deriL- The President largely decides whether state and local governments through ing with state and local governments; the vice presidency will be a shelf or a his' chairmanship 'of the Office of In- the White House would ask. It never stepping-stone." tergovernmental Relatons. Mr. Nixon has. Agnew himself acknowledged in an had set it up by executive order In According - to Thomson, "there are interview with The Washington Post 1969 to enhance the relationships, and still a lot of meetings all the lime" for May 15 not only his recurring frustra- the Vice President regarded it-as one Agnew to attend.-"He gets well briefed tions in the job, but also his uncer- of his most important assignments. in the economic'. "area, and he's terribly interested, in foreign affairs. There's abolish the vice presidency altogether, added his ballot anyway, making the also, been an increase in Cabinet and but it failed in the Senate by about six final count 51 to 50. A more crucial (Republican) leadership meetings." votes. congress settled instead for the vote came in July when the Senate, He has also seen busier times. Dur- 12th Amendment, providing for sepa- with Agnew breaking a genuine dead- ing- the month of September, his office rate ballots in the Electoral College lock, voted 50 to 49 to order an immed- reports, he attended one Cabinet and for president and Vice , President. iate start on construction of the Alaska two leadership meetings. He devotes From there, the vice presidency, went oil pipeline. great care to hig meetings with foreign. into an immediate and long-lasting de- Like Agnew, the White House has visitors, partly because that's his way, cline. been outwardly trying to give a) busi- but also partly because he doesn't have It has had something of a comeback ness-as-usual cast to Agnew's assign- that much else to do. - in modern times, thanks partly to the ments ih the midst of adversity. Dep- He still arrived for work •at the Exec- accession to the presidency of Harry uty Whit'e House press secretary Ger- uffve Office Building early, often be- Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Mr. ald L. Warren declared Wednesday fore 9 a.m., but he's been leaving ear- Nixon, all former vice presidents who that the vice President's duties and re- sponsibilities "are unchanged . .. they lier, frequently for a round of tennis knew the frustrations of the office are precisely what they have been for or- golf with partners such as House first-hand. some time." Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-Mich.) At the same time, the sight of a Vice Agnew followed up with a flurry of and chief Whitb-Vouse domestic ad- President-exercising his one day-to-clay public activity.