The Enduring Secrets of Watergate

"He said, 'Spencer, you know I want to work with the state party chairs, but now that I'm here there's something I want you to do. I want to get rid of this Watergate thing. I want you to drop that lawsuit.'

"I said, 'What?' I didn't think he knew what he was talking about. I said, 'But, Bob, you know that's the only avenue we have for discovery. Why would we want to get out of the lawsuit?'

"He replied, 'I don't want that Watergate stuff anymore. I want you to drop that lawsuit.' I said, 'Bob, without me, there is no lawsuit under the law.' He said, 'I'm the chairman and I want you to do it.' I said, 'Bob, I work for the state chairmen's association and I see no reason to do that.' It was very unpleasant at the end."

Oliver also found himself cut adrift by the DNC lawyers who said they had to follow Strauss's orders and back off the Watergate case, though privately they expressed hope that Oliver would find another lawyer and continue pursuing the case, Oliver recalled. "I said, "I can't afford that.'"

Oliver was then studying for the bar, supporting three children and working two jobs (for the state chairmen and for the American Council of Young Political Leaders). Plus, his marriage was on the rocks.

Oliver began a search for a new attorney willing to take on the powerful White House. He faced a string of rejections from other lawyers partly because so many Watergate figures had already hired attorneys at major firms that it created conflicts of interests for other law partners. Finally, at a dinner party in Potomac, Maryland, a personal injury lawyer named Joe Koonz offered to take the case on a contingency basis.

"They can't do anything to me," Koonz said, according to Oliver. "I'm a plaintiff's lawyer, a personal injury lawyer. You won't have to pay a thing. If we win, I'll get one-third and you'll get two-thirds, and I guarantee you if I get this thing before a jury, we'll win."

Oliver's success in keeping the civil suit alive represented a direct challenge to Strauss, who continued to seek an end to the DNC's legal challenge to the Republicans over Watergate. While Oliver didn't directly work for Strauss, the national chairman could force Oliver off the payroll.

"He couldn't fire me as executive director of the state chairmen's association, but he could cut off my pay, which he did after a big, nasty, ugly fight," Oliver said. "The state chairmen then paid my salary out of their own funds."

Strauss also moved the DNC out of Watergate, despite the favorable terms on the rent and the building's usefulness as a reminder of Republican wrongdoing. "Strauss said, "I don't care what it costs to move. I want to get this Watergate thing behind us,'" Oliver said. "It was ridiculous. They moved the office across the city to a worse location for less space at more cost. Plus, they lost the symbol of Watergate."

A Rising Bush

While Democratic leaders were debating whether to fold their hand on Watergate, Nixon was reshuffling his personnel deck for a second term. George H.W. Bush's credentials as a Nixon loyalist made him a top candidate for several senior administration jobs.

"A total Nixon man -- first," Nixon said in a discussion of Bush's future. "Doubt if you can do better than Bush." In one denigrating compliment, Nixon told Bush that he was high on the job lists because the administration needed "not brains but loyalty."[19]

"Bush was perfect for the RNC," wrote Bush's biographer Herbert S. Parmet, "whistle-clean, a tonic for the GOP's public image, a nice guy to everyone, but tough. How else could he have built a career in oil and politics? A great combination: respectability and strength, able to firm up the administration's lines of control. He could be handy at the money-raising, too."[20]