When Nixon won the presidency, Rumsfeld maneuvered to become the new Republican National Chairman. But Nixon picked Morton, who had been with him earlier.
In Congress Rumsfeld sought a party leadership post, as chairman of the GOP Research and Planning Committee, but lost to Ohio Congressman Robert A. Taft Jr. by a single vote. Although Rumsfeld was much more energetic and resourceful than Taft, he was also much more disliked by senior colleagues.
Back in Illinois Rumsfeld`s political options appeared to be closed. With a Republican governor, Richard Ogilvie, and two Republican U.S. senators, Everett Dirksen and Percy, Rumsfeld had nowhere to go politically in the winter of 1969. That`s why he gave up his safe congressional seat to join the Nixon administration as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. John Ehrlichman recalls in his memoirs: ”Nixon decided he wanted Rumsfeld in the executive branch without really knowing how he wanted to use him. Eventually, the senior staff grew to realize that the ambitious Rumsfeld would decline every assignment that did not enhance his personal goals.”
Rumsfeld had not been Nixon`s first choice for the job. Former Gov. William Scranton of Pennsylvania had been among four prominent Republicans who were sounded out but who rejected Nixon`s overtures.
On the weekend of Dwight D. Eisenhower`s funeral, three of Nixon`s White House assistants were courting Rumsfeld at the Illinois congressman`s home in Georgetown. They were surprised that Rumsfeld was willing to consider the offer. But Rumsfeld handed them a long memorandum outlining why he probably shouldn`t take the job. Rumsfeld noted that he was a conservative Republican from an affluent Republican congressional district, a WASP Ivy Leaguer and a longtime critic of OEO. As a congressman, Rumsfeld had voted against funding for OEO and had urged its termination. Even so, he did not want to join the Nixon administration to preside over the OEO`s sudden demise. Rumsfeld was given the VIP treatment. He was flown to Florida on a presidential plane to discuss the job with Nixon at Key Biscayne. The President assured Rumsfeld that he would not be a caretaker but rather a ranking member of the administration. Nixon noted that he had been Rumsfeld`s age when he had given up a safe congressional seat in Southern California to make an uncertain race for the U.S. Senate. Rumsfeld agreed to take the job but managed to negotiate himself two other jobs as well: membership in the cabinet and a White House office as an assistant to the president.
On taking over the troubled agency, Rumsfeld sold Nixon on a two-year extension of OEO. In testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee, Rumsfeld justified his flipflop on OEO by declaring that he was pushing for the extension not just to continue LBJ`s social programs but to determine ”what works and what does not.” Rumsfeld overcame the opposition of other members of the Nixon team and a majority of GOP congressmen to put together what he called a ”floating coalition” of Democrats and moderate Republicans that voted a stay of execution for OEO.
Rumsfeld was known for his toughness. In a time of confrontation, he impressed Nixon with his resolve. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Robert Finch, a longtime Nixon associate, was embarrassed when a welfare rights organization held him hostage in his office. When a group of college students tried to stage a sit-in at OEO, Rumsfeld had them arrested.
Within a relatively short time, Rumsfeld had impressed Nixon as one of the brightest and most capable members of the administration. Nixon admired Rumsfeld for his intellect, toughness, self-confidence and, most of all, his loyalty.
Rumsfeld passed Nixon`s political litmus test in 1970 by endorsing an administration-backed GOP plodder over one of his best friends. Democratic Congressman Allard K. Lowenstein of New York had been one of Rumsfeld`s closest friends since they wrestled against each other in college. Rumsfeld`s friendship with the rumpled New York liberal activist set him apart from other members of the Nixon administration. But when Lowenstein`s Republican opponent, Norman Lent, asked for Rumsfeld`s endorsement, he got it. Lowenstein was defeated for re-election and the friendship with Rumsfeld was permanently strained.
Despite Rumsfeld`s lack of experience at the national campaign level, Nixon asked him to manage the 1970 midterm campaign as his political director. Rumsfeld knew enough about politics to know that the party holding the presidency always takes a bath in midterm elections and didn`t want to be tainted as an architect of disaster. He turned Nixon down with the excuse that it would be inappropriate for him to manage a national political effort while also directing the anti-poverty program.
Jolted by the Democratic triumphs of 1970, Nixon was visibly concerned about his 1972 re-election prospects and spoke with Rumsfeld about the possibility of his becoming Republican National Chairman in preparation for managing the 1972 campaign. Rumsfeld, however, sensed that it would not be a good move for him. He had personality conflicts with Nixon`s senior aides, including chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman and political hatchet man Charles Colson. Ehrlichman asserted that Rumsfeld`s refusal to take the party chairmanship showed that he wasn`t a team player.
In any event, Rumsfeld`s rejection didn`t affect his standing with Nixon. In the fall of 1971 Nixon named him director of the Cost of Living Council, the enforcer of wage and price controls. Rumsfeld protested that he didn`t believe in wage-price controls and was told that was why he was picked. As always, Rumsfeld performed with efficiency. Eight years later, as a corporate executive, Rumsfeld publicly encouraged businessmen to defy the Carter administration`s voluntary wage-price restraints.
Since Rumsfeld had not been part of Nixon`s re-election team, he managed to avoid being tainted by the Watergate scandal and cover-up. Rumsfeld said later that he didn`t know if Ehrlichman and Colson had cut him out of political operations or if he had cut himself out by his behavior.
In the winter of 1973 Rumsfeld distanced himself from the Nixon White House by getting himself appointed U.S. ambassador to NATO, stationed in Brussels. Although the assignment wasn`t considered a diplomatic plum, it gave Rumsfeld a foreign policy credential and a political forum. From his vantage point, Rumsfeld became a critic of the Nixon-Kissinger detente policies and an advocate of a hard line against the Russians. Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, who shared Rumsfeld`s concerns about detente, tried to recruit Rumsfeld as Secretary of the Navy. But Rumsfeld chose to remain in Europe.
According to Nixon, Rumsfeld was a loyalist to the end of the Nixon presidency. In the summer of 1974, with the House of Representatives set to impeach Nixon for alleged obstruction of justice in the Watergate cover-up, Rumsfeld offered to come home and to plead Nixon`s case before former congressional colleagues, Nixon recalls in his memoirs. Rumsfeld says that he has no such recollection.
Rumsfeld and his wife were on vacation in southern France when they learned of Nixon`s resignation and Ford`s ascendancy to the White House. Rumsfeld caught the first available jet to Washington and arrived just two hours after Ford`s swearing-in. On his arrival at Dulles airport, Rumsfeld received a note from the new president asking him to run the White House transition team. Within two weeks, Rumsfeld completed the job and folded the transition staff.
Ford`s first major appointment was his vice presidential successor. Because of his friendship with the new president, Rumsfeld was on the short list, along with Bush and former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. Rumsfeld wasn`t the favorite son of the 14 Illinois GOP congressmen, a majority of whom favored Rockefeller or Bush over their former colleague. Ford selected Rockefeller.
When Ford sounded him out about becoming chief of staff, Rumsfeld demurred. But soon afterward, Ford got him to change his mind. Of all his political jobs, Rumsfeld says, managing the White House staff was the most difficult. His major accomplishment was removing Nixon holdovers and replacing them with Ford appointees, which enabled the new president to put his own stamp on the White House.
In the process, Rumsfeld was putting his own imprint on the new administration. Robert Hartmann, who had been Ford`s chief aide, was pushed aside and moved to a distant office. Rumsfeld hit the ground running. He had a keener understanding of the federal bureaucracy than any presidential chief of staff since the New Deal, and Ford relied heavily on his judgment. Rumsfeld consolidated his influence by controlling access to the Oval Office, by bringing his own proteges into the administration in senior positions and by maintaining tight control over such White House perquisites as who got to ride in official limousines and eat in the White House mess. He discreetly ordered the flight crew on Air Force One to wait until the last leg of any presidential trip to serve liquor. Former White House military office chief Bill Gulley says that the reason for Rumsfeld`s no-drinking rule was that Ford ”showed his liquor the minute he swallowed it.” Rumsfeld denies this.
Rumsfeld was influential in the appointment not only of Edward Levi to Ford`s cabinet but also of William Coleman as transportation secretary and John Dunlop as labor secretary. On Ford`s instructions, Rumsfeld offered the commerce post to Reagan in an effort to keep him from challenging Ford for the 1976 GOP presidential nomination. Rumsfeld said that Reagan was ”typically gracious but wasn`t interested.”
Rumsfeld developed and wrote a manual known as ”Rumsfeld`s Rules” for other top-level White House aides that has become an unofficial textbook for running the White House staff. ”Don`t play president–you`re not,” was Rumsfeld`s first commandment. ”The Constitution provides for only one President. Don`t forget it, and don`t be seen by others as not understanding that fact.”
One of the chief violators of Rumsfeld`s rule was the man who had edged him out for the vice presidency. Rockefeller, who had been promised a major policy-making role as vice president, had visions of a co-presidency with Ford. Rockefeller won an early round with Rumsfeld in gaining control of the Domestic Policy Council and, briefly, strutted through the corridors of the White House as if he were the nation`s chief policymaker. But if Rockefeller won the opening skirmish, Rumsfeld won the war. Rumsfeld fired back memoranda to the vice president`s staff on grounds that they were ill prepared. He rebuffed Rockefeller`s efforts to buy his friendship when the vice president offered him the use of his private jet.
When Ford dumped Rockefeller from the 1976 GOP ticket, the vice president blamed Rumsfeld for his ouster. Though Rumsfeld insists that he didn`t push to remove Rockefeller from the ticket, he thinks that Ford was politically correct in making a switch.
